A 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON 


GEORGE 
WASHINGTON 

BY 
WILLIAM  ROSCOE  THAYER 


I  have  ever  thought 

Nature  doth  nothing  so  great  for  great  men 
As  when  she  's  pleased  to  make  them  lords  of  truth: 
Integrity  of  life  is  fame's  best  friend, 
Which  nobly,  beyond  death,  shall  crown  the  end. 

JOHN  WEBSTER:  The  Duchess  of  Malfi,  v,  5. 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 


1922 


COPYRIGHT,  1922,  BY  WILLIAM  R.  THAYER 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
<  PRINTED  IN  THE  U.S.A. 


TO 

HARRIET  SEARS  AMORY 

WITH  THE  BEST  WISHES 

OF 

;       HER  OLD  FRIEND 
THE  AUTHOR 

May  20, 1922 


490072 


PREFACE 

TO  obviate  misunderstanding,  it  seems  well  to 
warn  the  reader  that  this  book  aims  only  at 
giving  a  sketch  of  George  Washington's  life  and  acts. 
I  was  interested  to  discover,  if  I  could,  the  human 
residue  which  I  felt  sure  must  persist  in  Washington 
after  all  was  said.  Owing  to  the  pernicious  drivel  of 
the  Reverend  Weems  no  other  great  man  in  history 
has  had  to  live  down  such  a  mass  of  absurdities  and 
deliberate  false  inventions.  At  last  after  a  century 
and  a  quarter  the  rubbish  has  been  mostly  cleared 
away,  and  only  those  who  wilfully  prefer  to  deceive 
themselves  need  waste  time  over  an  imaginary  Father 
of  His  Country  amusing  himself  with  a  fictitious 
cherry-tree  and  hatchet. 

The  truth  is  that  the  material  about  George  Wash 
ington  is  very  voluminous.  His  military  records 
cover  the  eight  years  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 
His  political  work  is  preserved  officially  in  the  re 
ports  of  Congress.  Most  of  the  public  men  who  were 
his  contemporaries  left  memoirs  or  correspondence 
in  which  he  figures.  Above  all  there  is  the  edition,  in 
fourteen  volumes,  of  his  own  writings  compiled  by 
Mr.  Worthing  ton  C.  Ford.  And  yet  many  persons 


viii  PREFACE 

find  something  that  baffles  them.  They  do  not  rec 
ognize  a  definite  flesh  and  blood  Virginian  named 
Washington  behind  it  all.  Even  so  sturdy  an  his 
torian  as  Professor  Channing  calls  him  the  most 
elusive  of  historic  personages.  Who  has  not  wished 
that  James  Boswell  could  have  spent  a  year  with 
Washington  on  terms  as  intimate  as  those  he  spent 
with  Dr.  Johnson  and  could  have  left  a  report  of 
that  intimacy? 

In  this  sketch  I  have  conceived  of  Washington  as 
of  some  superb  athlete  equipped  for  every  ordeal 
which  life  might  cause  him  to  face.  The  nature  of 
each  ordeal  must  be  briefly  stated;  brief  also,  but 
sufficient,  the  account  of  the  way  he  accomplished 
it.  I  have  quoted  freely  from  his  letters  wherever  it 
seemed  fitting,  first,  because  in  them  you  get  his  per 
sonal  authentic  statement  of  what  happened  as  he 
saw  it,  and  you  get  also  his  purpose  in  making  any 
move;  and  next,  because  nothing  so  well  reveals  the 
real  George  Washington  as  those  letters  do.  Who 
ever  will  steep  himself  in  them  will  hardly  declare 
that  their  writer  remains  an  elusive  person  beyond 
finding  out  or  understanding.  In  the  course  of  read 
ing  them  you  will  come  upon  many  of  those  "im 
ponderables"  which  are  the  secret  soul  of  state 
craft. 

And  so  with  all  humility  —  for  no  one  can  spend 


PREFACE  ix 

much  time  with  Washington,  and  not  feel  profound 
humility  —  I  leave  this  little  sketch  to  its  fate,  and 
hope  that  some  readers  will  find  in  it  what  I  strove 
to  put  in  it. 

W.  R.  T. 

CAMBRIDGE,  MASSACHUSETTS 
June  n,  1922 


CONTENTS 

I.  ORIGINS  AND  YOUTH  I 

II.  MARRIAGE.  THE  LIFE  OF  A  PLANTER  27 

III.  THE  FIRST  GUN  47 

IV.  BOSTON  FREED  66 
V.  TRENTON  AND  VALLEY  FORGE  74 

VI.  AID  FROM  FRANCE;  TRAITORS  107 

VII.  WASHINGTON  RETURNS  TO  PEACE  130 

VIII.  WELDING  THE  NATION  151 

IX.  THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT  178 

X.  THE  JAY  TREATY  203 

XI.  WASHINGTON  RETIRES  FROM  PUBLIC  LIFE  215 

XII.  CONCLUSION  231 

INDEX  261 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON 
THE  HOUDON  STATUE  AT  RICHMOND 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON  :  THE  STATUE  BY  HOUDON  IN  THE 
CAPITOL  AT  RICHMOND,  VIRGINIA  Frontispiece 

MARTHA  WASHINGTON  34 

From  the  portrait  by  Gilbert  Stuart  in  the  Museum  of  Fine 
Arts,  Boston 

COLONEL  GEORGE  WASHINGTON  60 

From  the  portrait  painted  in  1772  by  Charles  Willson  Peale, 
now  owned  by  Washington  and  Lee  University,  Lexington,  Va. 

WASHINGTON  AT  THE  BATTLE  OF  TRENTON  86 

From  the  painting  by  Colonel  John  Trumbull  in  the  Yale  School 
of  Fine  Arts,  New  Haven 

MOUNT  VERNON  140 

From  an  old  lithograph 

THE  "  ATHENAEUM  PORTRAIT  "  BY  GILBERT  STUART          148 

From  the  painting  formerly  belonging  to  the  Boston  Athenaeum, 
now  in  the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston 

THE  "GOODHUE  PORTRAIT"  190 

From  the  drawing  formerly  owned  by  David  Nichols,  of  Salem, 
and  endorsed  by  Benjamin  Goodhue,  United  States  Senator  for 
Massachusetts,  1796-1800,  as  "done  in  New  York,  1790,"  and 
"  acknowledged  by  all  to  be  a  very  strong  likeness."  It  is  believed 
to  have  been  drawn  by  Joseph  Wright. 

FAMILY  GROUP  AT  MOUNT  VERNON,  BY  EDWARD  SAVAGE  234 

From  Savage's  lithograph  after  his  painting. 


ABBREVIATIONS 
OF  TITLES  FREQUENTLY  REFERRED  TO 

Channing  =  Edward  Channing:  History  of  the  United  States.    New 

York:  Macmillan  Company,  III,  IV.    1912. 
Fiske  =  ]ohn  Fiske:   The  Critical  Period  of  American  History, 
1783-1789.  Boston :Houghton  Mifflin  Company.  1897. 
Ford  =  Worthington  C.  Ford:  The  Writings  of  George  Washington. 

14  vols.  New  York:  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  1889-93. 
Ford  =  Worthington  C.  Ford:  George  Washington.  2  vols.  Paris: 

Goupil;  New  York:  Charles  Scribner's  Sons.   1900. 
Hapgood  =  Norman  Hapgood:  George  Washington.  New  York:  Mac 
millan  Company.   1901. 
Irving  =  Washington   Irving:  Life  of  George   Washington.   New 

York :G.  P.  Putnam.   1857. 

Lodge  =  Henry  Cabot  Lodge:  George  Washington.  2  vols.  Ameri 
can  Statesman  Series.  Boston:  Houghton  Mifflin  Com 
pany.   1889. 
Marshall  =  John  Marshall :  The  Life  of  George  Washington.  5  vols. 

Philadelphia.   1807. 

Sparks  =  Jared  Sparks:  The  Life  of  George  Washington.  Boston. 
Wister  =  Owen  Wister:  The  Seven  Ages  of  Washington.  New  York: 
Macmillan  Company.  1909. 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON 


CHAPTER  I 
ORIGINS  AND  YOUTH 

ZEALOUS  biographers  of  George  Washington 
have  traced  for  him  a  most  respectable,  not 
to  say  distinguished,  ancestry.  They  go  back  to  the 
time  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  find  Washingtons  then 
who  were  "  gentlemen. "  A  family  of  the  name  ex 
isted  in  Northumberland  and  Durham,  but  modern 
investigation  points  to  Sulgrave,  in  Northampton 
shire,  as  the  English  home  of  his  stock.  Here  was 
born,  probably  during  the  reign  of  Charles  I,  his 
great-grandfather,  John  Washington,  who  was  a 
sea-going  man,  and  settled  in  Virginia  in  1657.  His 
eldest  son,  Lawrence,  had  three  children  —  John, 
Augustine,  and  Mildred.  Of  these,  Augustine  mar 
ried  twice,  and  by  his  second  wife,  Mary  Ball,  whom 
he  married  on  March  17,  1730,  there  were  seven 
children  —  George,  Betty,  Samuel,  John,  Augustine, 
Charles,  and  Mildred.  The  family  home  in  West 
moreland  County,  nearly  opposite  Fredericksburg, 
was  Washington's  birthplace,  and  (February  n, 


2  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

Old  Style)  February  22,  New  Style,  1732,  was  the 
date.  We  hear  little  about  his  childhood,  he  being 
a  wholesomely  unprecocious  boy.  Rumors  have  it 
that  George  was  coddled  and  even  spoiled  by  his 
mother.  He  had  very  little  formal  education,  math 
ematics  being  the  only  subject  in  which  he  excelled, 
and  that  he  learned  chiefly  by  himself.  But  he  lived 
abundantly  an  out-of-door  life,  hunting  and  fishing 
much,  and  playing  on  the  plantation.  His  family, 
although  not  rich,  lived  in  easy  fashion,  and  ranked 
among  the  gentry. 

No  Life  of  George  Washington  should  fail  to  warn 
the  reader  at  the  start  that  the  biographer  labors 
under  the  disadvantage  of  having  to  counteract  the 
errors  and  absurdities  which  the  Reverend  Mason 
L.  Weems  made  current  in  the  Life  he  published 
the  year  after  Washington  died.  No  one,  not  even 
Washington  himself,  could  live  down  the  reputation 
of  a  goody-goody  prig  with  which  the  officious  Scotch 
divine  smothered  him.  The  cherry-tree  story  has  had 
few  rivals  in  publicity  and  has  probably  done  more 
than  anything  else  to  implant  an  instinctive  con 
tempt  of  its  hero  in  the  hearts  of  four  generations  of 
readers.  "Why  could  n't  George  Washington  lie?" 
was  the  comment  of  a  little  boy  I  knew.  "  Could  n't 
he  talk?" 

Weems  pretended  to  an  intimacy  at  Mount  Ver- 


ORIGINS  AND  YOUTH  3 

non  which  it  appears  he  never  had.  In  "  Blackwood's 
Magazine"  John  Neal  said  of  the  book,  "Not  one 
word  of  which  we  believe.  It  is  full  of  ridiculous 
exaggerations."  And  yet  neither  this  criticism  nor 
any  other  stemmed  the  outpouring  of  editions  of 
it  which  must  now  number  more  than  seventy. 
Weems  doubtless  thought  that  he  was  helping  God 
and  doing  good  to  Washington  by  his  offensive  and 
effusive  support  of  rudimentary  morals. 

Weems  had  been  dead  a  dozen  years  when  another 
enemy  sprang  up.  This  was  the  worthy  Jared  Sparks, 
an  historian,  a  professor  of  history,  who  collected 
with  much  care  the  correspondence  of  George  Wash 
ington  and  edited  it  in  a  monumental  work.  Sparks, 
however,  suffered  under  the  delusion  that  some 
thing  other  than  fact  can  be  the  best  substance  of 
history.  According  to  his  tastes,  many  of  Washing 
ton's  letters  were  not  sufficiently  dignified;  they 
were  too  colloquial,  they  even  let  slip  expressions 
which  no  man  conscious  that  he  was  the  model  of 
propriety,  the  embodiment  of  the  dignity  of  history, 
could  have  used.  So  Mr.  Sparks  without  blushing 
went  through  Washington's  letters  and  substituted 
for  the  originals  words  which  he  decided  were  more 
seemly.  Again  the  public  came  to  know  George 
Washington,  not  by  his  own  words,  but  by  those  at 
tributed  to  him  by  an  overzealous  stylist-pedant. 


4  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

Well  might  the  Father  of  his  Country  pray  to  be  de 
livered  from  the  parsons. 

One  of  the  earliest  records  of  Washington's  youth 
is  the  copy,  written  in  his  beautiful,  almost  copper 
plate  hand,  of  "Rules  of  Civility  &  Decent  Be 
havior,  In  Company  and  Conversation."  These 
maxims  were  taken  from  an  English  book  called 
"The  Young  Man's  Companion,"  by  W.  Mather. 
It  had  passed  through  thirteen  editions  and  con 
tained  information  upon  many  matters  besides  con 
duct.  Perhaps  Washington  copied  the  maxims  as  a 
school  exercise ;  perhaps  he  learned  them  by  heart. 

They  are  for  the  most  part  the  didactic  aphorisms 
which  greatly  pleased  our  worthy  ancestors  during 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  later. 
Some  of  the  entries  referred  to  simple  matters  of 
deportment:  you  must  not  turn  your  back  on  per 
sons  to  whom  you  talk.  Others  touch  morals  rather 
than  manners.  One  imagines  that  the  parson  or 
elderly  uncles  allowed  themselves  to  bestow  this 
indisputably  correct  advice  upon  the  youths  whom 
they  were  interested  in.  A  boy  brought  up  rigidly 
on  these  doctrines  could  hardly  fail  to  become  a  prig 
unless  he  succeeded  in  following  the  last  injunction 
of  all:  "Labor  to  keep  alive  in  your  heart,  that  little 
spark  of  celestial  fire  called  conscience." 

When   he   was   twelve  years  old,   Washington's 


ORIGINS  AND  YOUTH  5 

father  died,  and  his  older  half-brother,  Lawrence,  who 
inherited  the  estate  now  known  as  Mount  Vernon, 
became  his  guardian.  Lawrence  had  married  the 
daughter  of  a  neighbor,  Lord  Fairfax,  who  owned  one 
of  the  largest  estates  in  Virginia.  Fairfax  and  he  had 
served  in  the  Navy  at  Cartagena  under  Admiral 
Vernon,  from  whom  the  Washington  manor  took 
its  name.  The  Lord  wished  to  have  his  domain  sur 
veyed  and  he  offered  George  the  work  of  surveying 
it.  George,  then  a  sturdy  lad  of  seventeen,  accepted 
gladly,  and  for  more  than  two  years  he  carried  it  on. 
The  Fairfax  estate  extended  far  into  the  west,  be 
yond  the  immediate  tidewater  district,  beyond  the 
fringe  of  sparsely  settled  clearings,  into  the  wilder 
ness  itself.  The  effect  of  his  experience  as  surveyor 
lasted  throughout  George  Washington's  life.  His 
self-reliance  and  his  courage  never  flagged.  Some 
times  he  went  alone  and  passed  weeks  among  the 
solitudes;  sometimes  he  had  a  companion  whom  he 
had  to  care  for  as  well  as  for  himself.  But  besides 
the  toughening  of  his  character  which  this  pioneer 
life  assured  him,  he  got  much  information,  which 
greatly  influenced,  years  later,  his  views  on  the  de 
velopment,  not  only  of  Virginia,  but  of  the  North 
west.  Perhaps  from  this  time  there  entered  into  his 
heart  the  conviction  that  the  strongest  bond  of  union 
must  sometime  bind  together  the  various  colonies, 


6  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

so  different  in  resources  and  in  interests,  including 
his  native  commonwealth. 

From  journals  kept  during  some  of  his  expeditions 
we  see  that  he  was  a  clear  observer  and  an  accurate 
reporter;  far  from  bookish,  but  a  careful  penman, 
and  conscious  of  the  obligation  laid  upon  him  to  ac 
quire  at  least  the  minimum  of  polite  knowledge 
which  was  expected  of  a  country  gentleman  such  as 
he  aspired  to  be. 

Here  is  an  extract  in  which  he  describes  the 
squalid  conditions  under  which  he  passed  some  of 
his  life  as  a  woodsman  and  surveyor. 

We  got  our  suppers  and  was  lighted  into  a  Room  and 
I  not  being  so  good  a  woodsman  as  ye  rest  of  my  com 
pany,  striped  myself  very  orderly  and  went  into  ye  Bed, 
as  they  calld  it,  when  to  my  surprize,  I  found  it  to  be 
nothing  but  a  little  straw  matted  together  without 
sheets  or  any  thing  else,  but  only  one  thread  bare  blan 
ket  with  double  its  weight  of  vermin,  such  as  Lice, 
Fleas,  etc.  I  was  glad  to  get  up  (as  soon  as  ye  light  was 
carried  from  us).  I  put  on  my  cloths  and  lay  as  my 
companions.  Had  we  not  been  very  tired,  I  am  sure  we 
should  not  have  slep'd  much  that  night.  I  made  a 
Promise  not  to  sleep  so  from  that  time  forward,  chusing 
rather  to  sleep  in  ye  open  air  before  a  fire,  as  will  appear 
hereafter. 

Wednesday  i6th.  We  set  out  early  and  finish'd  about 
one  o'clock  and  then  Travelled  up  to  Frederick  Town, 
where  our  Baggage  came  to  us.  We  cleaned  ourselves 
(to  get  rid  of  ye  game  we  had  catched  ye  night  before). 
I  took  a  Review  of  ye  Town  and  then  return'd  to  our 


ORIGINS  AND  YOUTH  7 

Lodgings  where  we  had  a  good  Dinner  prepared  for  us. 
Wine  and  Rum  Punch  in  plenty,  and  a  good  Feather  Bed 
with  clean  sheets,  which  was  a  very  agreeable  regale. 

The  longest  of  Washington's  early  expeditions  was 
the  "Journey  over  the  Mountains,  began  Fryday 
the  nth  of  March  1747/8."  The  mountains  were 
the  Alleghanies,  and  the  trip  gave  him  a  closer  ac 
quaintance  than  he  had  had  with  Indians  in  the 
wilds.  On  his  return,  he  stayed  with  his  half-brother, 
Lawrence,  at  Mount  Vernon,  or  with  Lord  Fairfax, 
and  enjoyed  the  country  life  common  to  the  richer 
Virginians  of  the  time.  Towns  which  could  provide 
an  inn  being  few  and  far  between,  travellers  sought 
hospitality  in  the  homes  of  the  well-to-do  residents, 
and  every  one  was  in  a  way  a  neighbor  of  the  other 
dwellers  in  his  county.  So  both  at  Belvoir  and  at 
Mount  Vernon,  guests  were  frequent  and  broke  the 
monotony  and  loneliness  of  their  inmates.  I  think 
the  reputation  of  gravity,  which  was  fixed  upon 
Washington  in  his  mature  years,  has  been  projected 
back  over  his  youth.  The  actual  records  are  lacking, 
but  such  hints  and  surmises  as  we  have  do  not  war 
rant  our  thinking  of  him  as  a  self-centred,  unsociable 
youth.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  rather,  what  would 
be  called  now,  a  sport,  ready  for  hunting  or  riding, 
of  splendid  physical  build,  agile  and  strong.  He 
liked  dancing,  and  was  not  too  shy  to  enjoy  the  so- 


8  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

ciety  of  you  ng  women ;  indeed ,  he  wrote  poems  to  some 
of  them,  and  seems  to  have  been  popular  with  them. 
And  still,  the  legend  remains  that  he  was  bashful. 

From  our  earliest  glimpses  of  him,  Washington 
appears  as  a  youth  very  particular  as  to  his  dress. 
He  knew  how  to  rough  it  as  the  extracts  of  his  per 
sonal  journals  which  I  have  quoted  show,  and  this 
passage  confirms: 

I  seem  to  be  in  a  place  where  no  real  satisfaction  is  to 
be  had.  Since  you  received  my  letter  in  October  last, 
I  have  not  sleep'd  above  three  or  four  nights  in  a  bed, 
but,  after  walking  a  good  deal  all  the  day,  I  lay  down 
before  the  fire  upon  a  little  hay,  straw,  fodder,  or  bear 
skin,  which  ever  is  to  be  had,  with  man,  wife,  and  chil 
dren,  like  a  parcel  of  dogs  and  cats,  and  happy  is  he  who 
gets  the  berth  nearest  the  fire.  There's  nothing  would 
make  it  pass  off  tolerably  but  a  good  reward.  A  dou 
bloon  is  my  constant  gain  every  day  that  the  weather 
will  permit  my  going  out,  and  sometimes  six  pistoles. 
The  coldness  of  the  weather  will  not  allow  of  my  making 
a  long  stay,  as  the  lodging  is  rather  too  cold  for  this  time 
of  year.  I  have  never  had  my  clothes  off  but  lay  and 
sleep  in  them,  except  the  few  nights  I  have  lay'n  in 
Frederic  Town.1 

Later,  when  Washington  became  master  of  Mount 
Vernon,  his  servants  were  properly  liveried.  He  him 
self  rode  to  hounds  in  the  approved  apparel  of  a  fox 
hunting  British  gentleman,  and  we  find  in  the  lists 
of  articles  for  which  he  sends  to  London  the  names 
1  Hapgood,  p.  ii. 


ORIGINS  AND  YOUTH  9 

of  clothes  and  other  articles  for  Mrs.  Washington 
and  the  children  carefully  specified  with  the  word 
"fashionable"  or  "very  best  quality"  added.  Still 
later,  when  he  was  President  he  attended  to  this 
matter  of  dress  with  even  greater  punctilio. 

One  incident  of  this  early  period  should  not  be 
passed  by  unmentioned.  Admiral  Vernon  offered 
him  an  appointment  as  midshipman  in  the  navy, 
but  Washington's  mother  objected  so  strongly  that 
Washington  gave  up  the  opportunity.  We  may  well 
wonder  whether,  if  he  had  accepted  it,  his  career 
might  not  have  been  permanently  turned  aside. 
Had  he  served  ten  or  a  dozen  years  in  the  navy,  he 
might  have  grown  to  be  so  loyal  to  the  King,  that, 
when  the  Revolution  came,  he  would  have  been 
found  in  command  of  one  of  the  King's  men-of-war, 
ordered  to  put  down  the  Rebels  in  Boston,  or  in  New 
York.  Thus  Fate  suggests  amazing  alternatives  to 
us  in  the  retrospect,  but  in  the  actual  living,  Fate 
makes  it  clear  that  the  only  course  which  could  have 
happened  was  that  which  did  happen. 

In  1751  the  health  of  Washington's  brother,  Law 
rence,  became  so  bad  from  consumption  that  he 
decided  to  pass  the  winter  in  a  warm  climate.  He 
chose  the  Island  of  Barbados,  and  his  brother  George 
accompanied  him.  Shortly  before  sailing,  George 
was  commissioned  one  of  the  Adjutants-General  of 


io  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

Virginia,  with  the  rank  of  Major,  and  the  pay  of  £150 
a  year.  They  sailed  on  the  Potomac  River,  perhaps 
near  Mount  Vernon,  on  September  28,  1751,  and 
landed  at  Bridgetown  on  November  3d.  The  next 
day  they  were  entertained  at  breakfast  and  dinner 
by  Major  Clark,  the  British  officer  who  commanded 
some  of  the  fortifications  of  the  island.  "  We  went," 
says  George  Washington,  in  a  journal  he  kept, 
"myself  with  some  reluctance,  as  the  smallpox  was 
in  his  family.'*  Thirteen  days  later,  George  fell  ill  of 
a  very  strong  case  of  smallpox  which  kept  him 
housed  for  six  weeks  and  left  his  face  much  dis 
figured  for  life  with  pock  marks,  a  fact  which,  so 
far  as  I  have  observed  his  portraits,  the  painters 
have  carefully  forgotten  to  indicate. 

The  brothers  passed  a  fairly  pleasant  month  and 
a  half  at  the  Barbados.  Major  Clark,  and  other 
gentlemen  and  officials  of  the  island,  showed  them 
much  attention.  They  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of 
the  Beefsteak  and  Tripe  Club,  which  seems  to  have 
been  the  fashionable  club.  On  one  occasion,  Wash 
ington  was  taken  to  the  play  to  see  the  "Tragedy  of 
George  Barnwell."  This  may  have  been  the  first 
time  that  he  went  to  the  theatre.  He  refers  to  it  in 
his  journal  with  his  habitual  caution  : 

Was  treated  with  a  play  ticket  by  Mr.  Carter  to  see 
the  Tragedy  of  George  Barnwell  acted :  the  character  of 


ORIGINS  AND  YOUTH  11 

Barnwell  and  several  others  was  said  to  be  well  per- 
form'd  there  was  Musick  a  Dap  ted  and  regularly  con 
ducted  by  Mr. 

But  Lawrence  Washington's  consumption  did  not 
improve:  he  grew  homesick  and  pined  for  his  wife 
and  for  Mount  Vernon.  The  physicians  had  recom 
mended  him  to  spend  a  full  year  at  Barbados,  in 
order  to  give  the  climate  and  the  regimen  there  a 
fair  trial,  but  he  could  not  endure  it  longer,  and, 
with  his  brother  George's  approval,  he  set  sail  for 
Virginia,  on  the  twenty-second  of  December,  1751. 
On  the  fourth  day  of  the  following  March,  George 
reached  his  brother  Augustine's  at  Wakefield.  Even 
from  his  much-mutilated  journal,  we  can  see  that  he 
travelled  with  his  eyes  open,  and  that  his  interests 
were  many.  As  he  mentioned  in  his  journal  thirty 
persons  with  whom  he  became  acquainted  at  the 
Barbados,  we  infer  that  in  spite  of  bashfulness  he 
was  an  easy  mixer.  This  short  journey  to  the  Bar 
bados  marks  the  only  occasion  on  which  George 
Washington  went  outside  of  the  borders  of  the 
American  Colonies,  which  became  later,  chiefly 
through  his  genius,  the  United  States. 1 

In  July,  1752,  Lawrence  Washington  died  of  the 
disease  which  he  had  long  struggled  against.  He 

1  J.  M.  Toner:  The  Daily  Journal  of  Major  George  Washington  in 
1751-2  (Albany,  N.Y.,  1892). 


12  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

left  his  fortune  and  his  property,  including  Mount 
Vernon,  to  his  daughter,  Mildred,  and  he  appointed 
his  brother,  George,  her  guardian.  She  was  a  sweet- 
natured  girl,  but  very  frail,  who  died  before  long, 
probably  of  the  same  disease  which  had  carried  her 
father  off,  and,  until  its  infectious  nature  was  under 
stood,  used  to  decimate  families  from  generation  to 
generation. 

To  have  thrust  upon  him,  at  the  age  of  twenty, 
the  management  of  a  large  estate  might  seem  a 
heavy  burden  for  any  young  man ;  but  George  Wash 
ington  was  equal  to  the  task,  and  it  seems  as  if  much 
of  his  career  up  to  that  time  was  a  direct  preparation 
for  it.  He  knew  every  foot  of  its  fields  and  meadows, 
of  its  woodlands  and  streams;  he  knew  where  each 
crop  grew,  and  its  rotation;  he  had  taken  great  in 
terest  in  horses  and  cattle,  and  in  the  methods  for 
maintaining  and  improving  their  breed ;  and  now,  of 
course  being  master,  his  power  of  choosing  good  men 
to  do  the  work  was  put  to  the  test.  But  he  had  not 
been  long  at  these  new  occupations  before  public 
duties  drew  him  away  from  them. 

Though  they  knew  it  not,  the  European  set 
tlers  in  North  America  were  approaching  a  life-and- 
death  catastrophe.  From  the  days  when  the  English 
and  the  French  first  settled  on  the  continent,  Fate 
ordained  for  them  an  irrepressible  conflict.  Should 


ORIGINS  AND  YOUTH  13 

France  prevail?  Should  England  prevail?  With  the 
growth  of  their  colonies,  both  the  English  and  the 
French  felt  their  rivalry  sharpened.  Although  dis 
tances  often  very  broad  kept  them  apart  in  space, 
yet  both  nations  were  ready  to  prove  the  terrible 
truth  that  when  two  men,  or  two  tribes,  wish  to 
fight  each  other,  they  will  find  out  a  way.  The 
French,  at  New  Orleans,  might  be  far  away  from  the 
English  at  Boston;  and  the  English,  in  New  York, 
or  in  Philadelphia,  might  be  removed  from  the 
French  in  Quebec;  but  in  their  hatreds  they  were 
near  neighbors.  The  French  pushed  westward  along 
the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Great  Lakes,  and  from 
Lake  Erie,  they  pushed  southward,  across  the  rich 
plains  of  Ohio,  to  the  Ohio  River.  Their  trails  spread 
still  farther  into  the  Western  wilderness.  They  set 
up  trading-posts  in  the  very  region  which  the  Eng 
lish  settlers  expected  to  occupy  in  the  due  process  of 
their  advance.  At  the  junction  of  the  Monongahela 
and  Ohio  Rivers,  they  planted  Fort  Duquesne, 
which  not  only  commanded  the  approach  to  the  ter 
ritory  through  which  the  Ohio  flowed  westward, 
but  served  notice  on  the  English  that  the  French 
regarded  themselves  as  the  rightful  claimants  of 
that  territory. 

In  1753  Governor  Dinwiddie,  of  Virginia,  had  sent 
a  commissioner  to  warn  the  French  to  cease  from  en- 


14  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

croaching  on  the  lands  in  the  Ohio  wilderness  which 
belonged  to  the  King  of  England,  but  the  messenger 
stopped  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  short  of  his  goal. 
Therefore,  the  Governor  decided  to  despatch  an 
other  envoy.  He  selected  George  Washington,  who 
was  already  well  known  for  his  surveying,  and  for 
his  expedition  beyond  the  mountains,  and  doubtless 
had  the  backing  of  the  Fairfaxes  and  other  influential 
gentlemen.  Washington  set  out  on  the  same  day  he 
received  his  appointment  from  Governor  Dinwiddie 
(October  31,  1753),  engaged  Jacob  Van  Braam,  a 
Hollander  who  had  taught  him  fencing,  to  be  his 
French  interpreter;  and  Christopher  Gist,  the  best 
guide  through  the  Virginia  wilderness,  to  pilot  the 
party.  In  spite  of  the  wintry  conditions  which  beset 
them,  they  made  good  time.  Washington  presented 
his  official  warning  to  M.  Joncaire,  the  principal 
French  commander  in  the  region  under  dispute,  but 
he  replied  that  he  must  wait  for  orders  from  the 
Governor  in  Quebec.  One  object  of  Washington's 
mission  was  to  win  over,  if  possible,  the  Indians, 
whose  friendship  for  either  the  French  or  the  Eng 
lish  depended  wholly  on  self-interest.  He  seems  to 
have  been  most  successful  in  securing  the  friend 
ship  of  Thanacarishon,  the  great  Seneca  Chief, 
known  as  the  Half-King.  This  native  left  it  as  his 
opinion  that 


ORIGINS  AND  YOUTH  15 

the  colonel  was  a  good-natured  man,  but  had  no  experi 
ence;  he  took  upon  him  to  command  the  Indians  as  his 
slaves,  and  would  have  them  every  day  upon  the  scout 
and  to  attack  the  enemy  by  themselves,  but  would  by 
no  means  take  advice  from  the  Indians.  He  lay  in  one 
place  from  one  full  moon  to  the  other,  without  making 
any  fortifications,  except  that  little  thing  on  the  mea 
dow,  whereas,  had  he  taken  advice,  and  built  such  for 
tifications  as  I  advised  him,  he  might  easily  have  beat 
off  the  French.  But  the  French  in  the  engagement  acted 
like  cowards,  and  the  English  like  fools.1 

Believing  that  he  could  accomplish  no  more  at 
that  time,  Washington  retraced  his  steps  and  re 
turned  to  Williamsburg. 

Governor  Dinwiddie,  being  much  disappointed 
with  the  outcome  of  the  expedition,  urged  the  Vir 
ginian  Legislature  to  equip  another  party  sufficiently 
strong  to  be  able  to  capture  Fort  Duquesne,  and  to 
confirm  the  British  control  of  the  Ohio.  The  Bur 
gesses,  however,  pleaded  economy,  and  refused  to 
grant  funds  adequate  to  this  purpose.  Nevertheless, 
the  Governor  having  equipped  a  small  troop,  under 
the  command  of  Colonel  Fry,  with  Washington  as 
second,  hurried  it  forth.  During  May  and  June  they 
were  near  the  Forks,  and  with  the  approach  of  dan 
ger,  Washington's  spirit  and  recklessness  increased. 
In  a  slight  skirmish,  M.  de  Jumonville,  the  French 
commander,  was  killed.  Fry  died  of  disease  and 
1  Quoted  by  Lodge,  I,  74. 


16  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

Washington  took  his  place  as  commander.  Perceiv 
ing  that  his  own  position  was  precarious,  and  expect 
ing  an  attack  by  a  large  force  of  the  enemy,  he  en 
trenched  himself  near  Great  Meadows  in  a  hastily 
built  fort,  which  he  called  Fort  Necessity,  and 
thought  it  possible  to  defend,  even  with  his  own  small 
force,  against  five  hundred  French  and  Indians. 
He  miscalculated,  however.  The  enemy  exceeded 
in  numbers  all  his  expectations.  His  own  resources 
dwindled;  and  so  he  took  the  decision  of  a  practical 
man  and  surrendered  the  fort,  on  condition  that  he 
and  his  men  be  allowed  to  march  out  with  the 
honors  of  war.  They  returned  to  Virginia  with  little 
delay. 

The  Burgesses  and  the  people  of  the  State,  though 
chagrined,  did  not  take  so  gloomy  a  view  of  the  col 
lapse  of  the  expedition  as  Washington  himself  did. 
His  own  depression  equalled  his  previous  exaltation. 
As  he  thought  over  the  affairs  of  the  past  half-year 
in  the  quiet  of  Mount  Vernon,  the  feeling  which  he 
had  had  from  the  start,  that  the  expedition  had  not 
been  properly  planned,  or  directed,  or  reenforced  in 
men  and  supplies,  was  confirmed.  Governor  Din- 
widdie's  notion  that  raw  volunteers  would  suffice  to 
overcome  trained  soldiers  had  been  proved  a  delusion. 
The  inadequate  pay  and  provisions  of  the  officers 
irritated  Washington,  not  only  because  they  were 


ORIGINS  AND  YOUTH  17 

insufficient,  but  also  because  they  fell  far  short  of 
those  of  the  English  regulars. 

In  his  penetrating  Biography  of  Washington, 
Senator  Lodge  regards  his  conduct  of  the  campaign, 
which  ended  in  the  surrender  of  Great  Meadows,  and 
his  narrative  as  revealing  Washington  as  a  "pro 
foundly  silent  man."  Carlyle,  Senator  Lodge  says, 
who  preached  the  doctrine  of  silence,  brushed  Wash 
ington  aside  as  a  "bloodless  Cromwell,"  "failing 
utterly  to  see  that  he  was  the  most  supremely  silent 
of  the  great  men  of  action  that  the  world  can  show." 
Let  us  admit  the  justice  of  the  strictures  on  Carlyle, 
but  let  us  ask  whether  Washington's  letters  at  this 
time  spring  from  a  "  silent "  man.  He  writes  with  per 
fect  openness  to  Governor  Dinwiddie ;  complains  of  the 
military  system  under  which  the  troops  are  paid  and 
the  campaign  is  managed ;  he  repeatedly  condemns 
the  discrimination  against  the  Virginian  soldiers  in 
favor  of  the  British  regulars;  and  he  points  out  that 
instead  of  attempting  to  win  the  popularity  of  the 
Virginians,  they  are  badly  treated.  Their  rations  are 
poor,  and  he  reminds  the  Governor  that  a  continuous 
diet  of  salt  pork  and  water  does  not  inspire  enthusi 
asm  in  either  the  stomach  or  the  spirit.  No  wonder 
that  the  officers  talk  of  resigning.  "For  my  own 
part  I  can  answer,  I  have  a  constitution  hardy 
enough  to  encounter  and  undergo  the  most  severe 


18  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

trials,  and,  I  flatter  myself,  resolution  to  face  what 
any  man  durst,  as  shall  be  proved  when  it  comes  to 
the  test,  which  I  believe  we  are  on  the  borders  of." 
In  several  other  passages  from  letters  at  this  time, 
we  come  upon  sentiments  which  indicate  that  Wash 
ington  had  at  least  a  sufficiently  high  estimation  of 
his  own  worth,  and  that  his  genius  for  silence  had 
not  yet  curbed  his  tongue.  There  is  the  famous  boast 
attributed  to  him  by  Horace  Walpole.  In  a  despatch 
which  Washington  sent  back  to  the  Governor  after 
the  little  skirmish  in  which  Jumonville  was  killed, 
Washington  said:  "  '  I  heard  the  bullets  whistle,  and, 
believe  me,  there  is  something  charming  in  the  sound.' 
On  hearing  of  this  the  King  said  sensibly,  '  he  would 
not  say  so  if  he  had  been  used  to  hear  many.'" 
This  reply  of  George  II  deserves  to  be  recorded  if 
only  because  it  is  one  of  the  few  feeble  witticisms 
credited  to  the  Hanoverian  Kings.  Years  afterward, 
Washington  declared  that  he  did  not  remember  ever 
having  referred  to  the  charm  of  listening  to  whistling 
bullets.  Perhaps  he  never  said  it;  perhaps  he  forgot. 
He  was  only  twenty-two  at  the  time  of  the  Great 
Meadows  campaign.  No  doubt  he  was  as  well  aware 
as  was  Governor  Dinwiddie,  and  other  Virginians, 
that  he  was  the  best  equipped  man  on  the  expedition, 
experienced  in  actual  fighting,  and  this,  added  to  his 
qualifications  as  a  woodsman,  had  given  him  a  real 


ORIGINS  AND  YOUTH  19 

zest  for  battle.  In  their  discussion  over  the  camp- 
fire,  he  and  his  fellow  officers  must  inevitably  have 
criticized  the  conduct  of  the  expedition,  and  it  may 
well  be  that  Washington  sometimes  insisted  that  if 
his  advice  were  followed  things  would  go  better. 
Not  on  this  account,  therefore,  must  we  lay  too  much 
blame  on  him  for  being  conceited  or  immodest.  He 
knew  that  he  knew,  and  he  did  not  dissemble  the 
fact.  Silence  came  later. 

The  result  of  the  expeditions  to  and  skirmishes  at 
the  Forks  of  the  Ohio  was  that  England  and  France 
were  at  war,  although  they  had  not  declared  war  on 
each  other.  A  chance  musket  shot  in  the  backwoods 
of  Virginia  started  a  conflict  which  reverberated  in 
Europe,  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  world  for  seven 
years,  and  had  serious  consequences  in  the  French 
and  English  colonies  of  North  America.  The  news 
of  Washington's  disaster  at  Fort  Necessity  aroused 
the  British  Government  to  the  conclusion  that  it 
must  make  a  strong  demonstration  in  order  to  crush 
the  swelling  prestige  of  the  French  rivals  in  America. 
The  British  planned,  accordingly,  to  send  out  three 
expeditions,  one  against  Fort  Duquesne,  another 
against  the  French  in  Nova  Scotia,  and  a  third 
against  Quebec.  The  command  of  the  first  they  gave 
to  General  Edward  Braddock.  He  was  then  sixty 
years  old,  had  been  in  the  Regular  Army  all  his  life, 


20  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

had  served  in  Holland,  at  L 'Orient,  and  at  Gibral 
tar,  was  a  brave  man,  and  an  almost  fanatical  be 
liever  in  the  rules  of  war  as  taught  in  the  manuals. 
During  the  latter  half  of  1754,  Governor  Dinwiddie 
was  endeavoring  against  many  obstacles  to  send  an 
other  expedition,  equipped  by  Virginia  herself,  to  the 
Ohio.  Only  in  the  next  spring,  however,  after  Brad- 
dock  had  come  over  from  England  with  a  relatively 
large  force  of  regulars,  were  the  final  preparations  for 
a  campaign  actually  made.  Washington,  in  spite  of 
being  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  Virginia  forces, 
had  his  wish  of  going  as  a  volunteer  at  his  own  ex 
pense.  He  wrote  his  friend  William  Byrd,  on  April 
20,  1755,  from  Mount  Vernon: 

I  am  now  preparing  for,  and  shall  in  a  few  days  set  off, 
to  serve  in  the  ensuing  campaign,  with  different  views, 
however,  from  those  I  had  before.  For  here,  if  I  can 
gain  any  credit,  or  if  I  am  entitled  to  the  least  coun 
tenance  and  esteem,  it  must  be  from  serving  my  coun 
try  without  fee  or  reward ;  for  I  can  truly  say,  I  have  no 
expectation  of  either.  To  merit  its  esteem,  and  the  good 
will  of  my  friends,  is  the  sum  of  my  ambition,  having  no 
prospect  of  attaining  a  commission,  being  well  assured 
it  is  not  in  Gen'l  Braddock's  power  to  give  such  an  one 
as  I  would  accept  of.  The  command  of  a  Company  is  the 
highest  commission  vested  in  his  gift.  He  was  so  oblig 
ing  as  to  desire  my  company  this  campaign,  has  hon 
oured  me  with  particular  marks  of  his  esteem,  and 
kindly  invited  me  into  his  family  —  a  circumstance 
which  will  ease  me  of  expences  that  otherwise  must 
have  accrued  in  furnishing  stores,  camp  equipages,  etc. 


ORIGINS  AND  YOUTH  21 

Whereas  the  cost  will  now  be  easy  (comparatively 
speaking),  as  baggage,  horses,  tents,  and  some  other 
necessaries,  will  constitute  the  whole  of  the  charge.1 

The  army  began  to  move  about  the  middle  of  May, 
but  it  went  very  slowly.  During  June  Washington 
was  taken  with  an  acute  fever,  in  spite  of  which  he 
pressed  on,  but  he  became  so  weak  that  he  had  to  be 
carried  in  a  cart,  as  he  was  unable  to  sit  his  horse. 
Braddock,  with  the  main  army,  had  gone  on  ahead, 
and  Washington  feared  that  the  battle,  which  he 
believed  imminent,  would  be  fought  before  he  came 
up  with  the  front.  But  he  rejoined  the  troops  on 
July  8th.  The  next  day  they  forded  the  Mononga- 
hela  and  proceeded  to  attack  Fort  Duquesne.  Writ 
ing  from  Fort  Cumberland,  on  July  i8th,  Washing 
ton  gave  Governor  Dinwiddie  the  following  account 
of  Braddock's  defeat.  The  one  thing  happened  which 
Washington  had  felt  anxious  about  —  a  surprise  by 
the  Indians.  He  had  more  than  once  warned  Brad- 
dock  of  this  danger,  and  Benjamin  Franklin  had 
warned  him  too  before  the  expedition  started,  but 
Braddock,  with  perfect  British  contempt,  had  re 
plied  that  though  savages  might  be  formidable  to 
raw  Colonials,  they  could  make  no  impression  on 
disciplined  troops.  The  surprise  came  and  thus  Wash 
ington  reports  it: 

1  Ford,  I,  148-49. 


22  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

When  we  came  to  this  place,  we  were  attacked  (very 
unexpectedly)  by  about  three  hundred  French  and 
Indians.  Our  numbers  consisted  of  about  thirteen  hun 
dred  well  armed  men,  chiefly  Regulars,  who  were  im 
mediately  struck  with  such  an  inconceivable  panick, 
that  nothing  but  confusion  and  disobedience  of  orders 
prevailed  among  them.  The  officers,  in  general,  behaved 
with  incomparable  bravery,  for  which  they  greatly  suf 
fered,  there  being  near  60  killed  and  wounded  —  a  large 
proportion,  out  of  the  number  we  had ! 

The  Virginia  companies  behaved  like  men  and  died 
like  soldiers;  for  I  believe  out  of  three  companies  that 
were  on  the  ground  that  day  scarce  thirty  were  left 
alive.  Capt.  Peyroney  and  all  his  officers,  down  to  a 
corporal,  were  killed;  Capt.  Poison  had  almost  as  hard 
a  fate,  for  only  one  of  his  escaped.  In  short,  the  dastardly 
behaviour  of  the  Regular  troops  (so-called)  exposed 
those  who  were  inclined  to  do  their  duty  to  almost  cer 
tain  death;  and,  at  length,  in  despite  of  every  effort  to 
the  contrary,  broke  and  ran  as  sheep  before  hounds, 
leaving  the  artillery,  ammunition,  provisions,  baggage, 
and,  in  short,  everything  a  prey  to  the  enemy.  And  when 
we  endeavored  to  rally  them,  in  hopes  of  regaining  the 
ground  and  what  we  had  left  upon  it,  it  was  with  as 
little  success  as  if  we  had  attempted  to  have  stopped  the 
wild  bears  of  the  mountains,  or  rivulets  with  our  feet; 
for  they  would  break  by,  in  despite  of  every  effort  that 
could  be  made  to  prevent  it. 

The  General  was  wounded  in  the  shoulder  and  breast, 
of  which  he  died  three  days  after;  his  two  aids-de-camp 
were  both  wounded,  but  are  in  a  fair  way  of  recovery; 
Colo.  Burton  and  Sr.  John  St.  Clair  are  also  wounded, 
and  I  hope  will  get  over  it;  Sir  Peter  Halket,  with  many 
other  brave  officers,  were  killed  in  the  field.  It  is  sup 
posed  that  we  had  three  hundred  or  more  killed ;  about 
that  number  we  brought  off  wounded,  and  it  is  con- 


ORIGINS  AND  YOUTH  23 

jectured  (I  believe  with  much  truth)  that  two  thirds 
of  both  received  their  shot  from  our  own  cowardly 
Regulars,  who  gathered  themselves  into  a  body,  con 
trary  to  orders,  ten  or  twelve  deep,  wrould  then  level, 
fire  and  shoot  down  the  men  before  them.1 

In  this  admirable  letter  Washington  tells  nothing 
about  his  own  prowess  in  the  battle,  where  he  rode 
to  all  parts  of  the  field,  trying  to  stem  the  retreat, 
and  had  two  horses  shot  under  him  and  four  bullet 
holes  in  his  coat.  He  tried  to  get  the  troops  to  break 
ranks  and  to  screen  themselves  behind  rocks  and 
trees,  but  Braddock,  helpless  without  his  rules, 
drove  them  back  to  regular  formation  with  the  flat 
of  his  sword,  and  made  them  an  easy  mark  for  the 
volleys  of  the  enemy.  Washington's  personal  valor 
could  not  fail  to  be  admired,  although  his  audacity 
exposed  him  to  unjustified  risks. 

On  reaching  Fort  Cumberland  he  wrote  to  his 
brother  John,  on  July  i8th: 

As  I  have  heard,  since  my  arrival  at  this  place,  a  cir 
cumstantial  account  of  my  death  and  dying  speech,  I 
take  this  early  opportunity  of  contradicting  the  first, 
and  assuring  you,  that  I  have  not  as  yet  composed  the 
latter.  But,  by  the  all-powerful  dispensations  of  Provi 
dence,  I  have  been  protected  beyond  all  human  proba 
bility  and  expectation.2 

The  more  he  thought  over  the  events  of  that  day, 
the  more  was  he  amazed  —  "I  join  very  heartily 

1  Ford,  i,  173-74-75-  *  KM.,  175-76. 


24  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

with  you  in  believing,"  he  wrote  Robert  Jackson  on 
August  2d,  "that  when  this  story  comes  to  be  re 
lated  in  future  annals,  it  will  meet  with  unbelief  and 
indignation,  for  had  I  not  been  witness  to  the  fact 
on  that  fatal  day,  I  should  scarce  have  given  credit 
to  it  even  now"1 

Although  Washington  was  thoroughly  disgusted 
by  the  mismanagement  of  military  affairs  in  Virginia, 
he  was  not  ready  to  deny  the  appeals  of  patriotism. 
From  Mount  Vernon,  on  August  14,  1755,  he  wrote 
his  mother: 

HONORED  MADAM,  If  it  is  in  my  power  to  avoid  going 
to  the  Ohio  again,  I  shall;  but  if  the  command  is  pressed 
upon  me,  by  the  general  voice  of  the  country,  and  offered 
upon  such  terms  as  cannot  be  objected  against,  it  would 
reflect  dishonor  upon  me  to  refuse;  and  that,  I  am  sure 
must  or  ought  to  give  you  greater  uneasiness,  than  my 
going  in  an  honorable  command,  for  upon  no  other 
terms  I  will  accept  of  it.  At  present  I  have  no  proposals 
made  to  me,  nor  have  I  any  advice  of  such  an  intention, 
except  from  private  hands.2 

Braddock's  defeat  put  an  end  to  campaigning  in 
Virginia  for  some  time.  The  consternation  it  caused, 
not  only  held  the  people  of  the  sparse  western  set 
tlements  in  alarm  but  agitated  the  tidewater  towns 
and  villages.  The  Burgesses  and  many  of  the  in 
habitants  had  not  yet  learned  their  lesson  sufficiently 
to  set  about  reorganizing  their  army  system,  but  the 

1  Ford,  I,  177.  *  Ibid.,  180-81. 


ORIGINS  AND  YOUTH  25 

Assembly  partially  recognized  its  obligation  to  the 
men  who  had  fought  by  voting  to  them  a  small  sum 
for  losses  during  their  previous  service.  Washington 
received  £300,  but  his  patriotic  sense  of  duty  kept 
him  active.  In  the  winter  of  1758,  however,  owing 
to  a  very  serious  illness,  he  resigned  from  the  army 
and  returned  to  Mount  Vernon  to  recuperate. 

During  the  long  and  tedious  weeks  of  sickness  and 
recovery,  Washington  doubtless  had  time  to  think 
over,  to  clarify  in  his  mind,  and  to  pass  judgment 
on  the  events  in  which  he  had  shared  during  the  past 
six  or  seven  years.  From  boyhood  that  was  his 
habit.  He  must  know  the  meaning  of  things.  An 
event  might  be  as  fruitless  as  a  shooting  star  unless 
he  could  trace  the  relations  which  tied  it  to  what 
came  before  and  after.  Hence  his  deliberation  which 
gave  to  his  opinions  the  solidity  of  wisdom.  Auda 
cious  he  might  be  in  battle,  but  perhaps  what  seems 
to  us  audacity  seemed  to  him  at  the  moment  a 
higher  prudence.  If  there  were  crises  when  the  odds 
looked  ten  to  one  against  him,  he  would  take  the 
chance.  He  knew  the  incalculable  value  of  courage. 
His  experiences  with  the  British  regulars  and  their 
officers  left  a  deep  impression  on  him  and  colored 
his  own  decisions  in  his  campaigns  against  the 
British  during  the  Revolutionary  War.  To  genius 
nothing  comes  amiss,  and  by  genius  nothing  is  for- 


26  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

gotten.  So  we  find  that  all  that  Washington  saw 
and  learned  during  his  years  of  youth  —  his  appren 
ticeship  as  surveyor,  his  vicissitudes  as  pioneer, 
tasks  as  Indian  fighter  and  as  companion  of  the  de 
feated  Braddock  —  all  contributed  to  fit  him  for  the 
supreme  work  for  which  Fate  had  created  him  and 
the  ages  had  waited. 


CHAPTER  II 
MARRIAGE.   THE  LIFE  OF  A  PLANTER 

WAR  is  like  the  wind,  nobody  can  tell  into  whose 
garden  it  may  blow  desolation.  The  French 
and  Indian  War,  generally  called  now  the  Seven 
Years'  War,  beginning  as  a  mere  border  altercation 
between  the  British  and  French  backwoodsmen  on 
the  banks  of  the  upper  Ohio  River,  grew  into  a  strug 
gle  which,  by  the  year  1758,  when  Washington  re 
tired  from  his  command  of  the  Virginia  Forces, 
spread  over  the  world.  A  new  statesman,  one  of  the 
ablest  ever  born  in  England,  came  to  control  the 
English  Government.  William  Pitt,  soon  created 
Earl  of  Chatham,  saw  that  the  British  Empire  had 
reached  a  crisis  in  its  development.  Incompetence, 
inertia,  had  blurred  its  prestige  and  the  little  vic 
tories  which  France,  its  chief  enemy,  had  been  win 
ning  against  it  piecemeal,  were  coming  to  be  regarded 
as  signs  that  the  grandeur  of  Britain  was  passing. 
Pitt  saw  the  gloomy  situation,  and  the  still  gloomier 
future  which  it  seemed  to  prophesy,  but  he  saw  also 
the  remedy.  Within  a  few  months,  under  his  direc 
tion,  English  troops  were  in  every  part  of  the  world, 
and  English  ships  of  war  were  sailing  every  ocean, 


28  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

to  recover  the  slipping  elements  and  to  solidify  the 
British  Empire.  Just  as  Pitt  was  taking  up  his  resi 
dence  at  Downing  Street,  Robert  Clive  was  winning 
the  Battle  of  Plassey  in  India,  which  brought  to 
England  territory  of  untold  wealth.  Two  years 
later  James  Wolfe,  defeating  the  French  commander, 
Montcalm,  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham,  added  not 
only  Quebec,  but  all  Canada,  to  the  British  Crown, 
and  ended  French  rivalry  north  of  the  Great  Lakes. 
Victories  like  these,  seemingly  so  casual,  really  as 
final  and  as  unrevisable  as  Fate,  might  well  cause 
Englishmen  to  suspect  that  Destiny  itself  worked 
with  them,  and  that  an  Englishman  could  be  trusted 
to  endure  through  any  difficulties  to  a  triumphant 
conclusion. 

Beaten  at  every  point  where  they  met  the  British, 
the  French,  even  after  they  had  secured  an  alliance 
with  Spain,  which  proved  of  little  worth,  were  glad 
to  make  peace.  On  February  10,  1763,  they  signed 
the  Treaty  of  Paris,  which  confirmed  to  the  British 
nearly  all  their  victories  and  left  England  the  domi 
nant  Power  in  both  hemispheres.  The  result  of  the 
war  produced  a  marked  effect  on  the  people  of  the 
British  Colonies  in  North  America.  "At  no  period 
of  time,"  says  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  in  his  "Life 
of  Washington,"  "was  the  attachment  of  the  col 
onists  to  the  mother  country  more  strong,  or  more 


THE  LIFE  OF  A  PLANTER  29 

general,  than  in  1763,  when  the  definitive  articles 
of  the  treaty  which  restored  peace  to  Great  Britain, 
France,  and  Spain,  were  signed."  1  But  we  who 
know  the  sequel  perceive  that  the  Seven  Years'  War 
not  only  strengthened  the  attachment  between  the 
Colonies  and  the  Mother  Country,  but  that  it  also 
made  the  Colonies  aware  of  their  common  interests, 
and  awakened  among  them  mutual  friendship,  and 
in  a  very  brief  time  their  sense  of  unity  prevailed 
over  their  temporary  enthusiasm  for  England. 
George  III,  a  monarch  as  headstrong  as  he  was 
narrow,  with  insanity  lurking  in  his  mind,  succeeded 
to  the  throne  in  1760,  and  he  seized  the  first  oppor 
tunity  to  get  rid  of  his  masterful  Minister,  William 
Pitt.  He  replaced  him  with  the  Earl  of  Bute,  a 
Scotchman,  and  a  man  of  ingenious  parts,  but  with 
the  incurable  Tory  habit  of  insisting  that  it  was  still 
midnight  long  after  the  sun  was  shining  in  the  fore 
noon  of  another  day. 

Before  the  Treaty  was  signed  and  the  world  had  be 
gun  to  spin  in  a  new  groove,  which  optimists  thought 
would  stretch  on  forever,  an  equally  serious  change 
had  come  to  the  private  life  of  George  Washington. 
To  the  surprise  of  his  friends,  who  had  begun  to 
doubt  whether  he  would  ever  get  married,  he  found 
his  life's  companion  and  married  her  without  delay. 

1  Marshall:  The  Life  of  George  Washington  (Philadelphia,  1805, 
5  vols.),  ii,  68. 


30  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

The  notion  seems  to  have  been  popular  during  his 
lifetime,  and  it  certainly  has  continued  to  later  days, 
that  he  was  too  bashful  to  feel  easy  in  ladies'  society. 
I  find  no  evidence  for  this  mistaken  idea.  Although 
little  has  been  recorded  of  the  intimacies  of  Wash 
ington's  youth,  there  are  indications  of  more  than 
one  "flame"  and  that  he  was  not  dull  and  stockish 
with  the  young  women.  As  early  as  1748,  we  hear  of 
the  Low-Land  Beauty  who  had  captivated  him,  and 
who  is  still  to  be  identified.  Even  earlier,  in  his 
school  days,  he  indulged  in  writing  love  verses. 
But  we  need  not  infer  that  they  were  inspired  by 
living  damsels  or  by  the  Muses. 

"Oh  ye  Gods  why  should  my  poor  resistless  Heart 
Stand  to  oppose  thy  might  and  power  — 

"  In  deluding  sleepings  let  my  eyelids  close 
That  in  an  enraptured  dream  I  may 
In  a  rapt  lulling  sleep  and  gentle  repose 
Possess  those  joys  denied  by  day."  1 

Cavour  said  that  it  was  easier  for  him  to  make 
Italy  than  to  write  a  poem:  Washington,  who  was 
also  an  honest  man,  and  fully  aware  of  his  limitations, 
would  probably  have  admitted  that  he  could  make 
the  American  Republic  more  easily  than  a  love 
song.  But  he  was  susceptible  to  feminine  charms, 
and  we  hear  of  Betsy  Fauntleroy,  and  of  a  "Mrs. 

1  Quoted  by  Wister,  39. 


THE  LIFE  OF  A  PLANTER  31 

Meil,"  and  on  his  return  to  Mount  Vernon,  after 
Braddock's  defeat,  he  received  the  following  round 
robin  from  some  of  the  young  ladies  at  Belvoir: 

DEAR  SIR,  —  After  thanking  Heaven  for  your  safe 
return  I  must  accuse  you  of  great  unkindness  in  refusing 
us  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  this  night.  I  do  assure  you 
nothing  but  our  being  satisfied  that  our  company  would 
be  disagreeable  should  prevent  us  from  trying  if  our  legs 
would  not  carry  us  to  Mount  Vernon  this  night,  but  if 
you  will  not  come  to  us  tomorrow  morning  very  early 
we  shall  be  at  Mount  Vernon. 

S[ALLY]  FAIRFAX 
ANN  SPEARING 
ELIZ'TH  DENT 

Apparently  Washington's  love  affairs  were  known 
and  talked  about  among  his  group.  What  promised 
to  be  the  most  serious  of  his  experiences  was  with 
Mary  Philipse,  of  New  York,  daughter  of  Frederick 
Philipse,  one  of  the  richest  landowners  in  that  Col 
ony,  and  sister-in-law  of  Beverly  Robinson,  one  of 
Washington's  Virginian  friends.  Washington  was 
going  to  Boston  on  a  characteristic  errand.  One  of 
the  minor  officers  in  the  Regular  British  Army, 
which  had  accompanied  Braddock  to  Virginia,  re 
fused  to  take  orders  from  Washington,  and  officers 
of  higher  grade  in  Virginia  Troops,  declaring  that 
their  commissions  were  assigned  only  by  Colonial 
officials,  whereas  he  had  his  own  from  King  George. 
This  led,  of  course,  to  insubordination  and  frequent 


32  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

quarrels.  To  put  a  stop  to  the  wrangling,  Washing 
ton  journeyed  to  Boston,  to  have  Governor  Shirley, 
the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  King's  Forces  in  the 
Colonies,  give  a  decision  upon  it.  The  Governor 
ruled  in  favor  of  Washington,  who  then  rode  back  to 
Virginia.  But  he  spent  a  week  in  New  York  City  in 
order  to  see  his  enchantress,  Mary  Philipse,  and  it 
is  even  whispered  that  he  proposed  to  her  and  that 
she  refused  him.  Two  years  afterwards  she  married 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Roger  Morris,  and  during  the 
Revolution  the  Morris  house  was  Washington's  head 
quarters;  the  Morrises,  who  were  Tories,  having  fled. 
Persons  have  speculated  why  it  was  that  so  many 
of  the  young  women  whom  Washington  took  a 
fancy  to,  chilled  and  drew  back  when  it  came  to  the 
question  of  marriage.  One  very  clever  writer  thinks 
that  perhaps  his  nose  was  inordinately  large  in  his 
youth,  and  that  that  repelled  them.  I  do  not  pretend 
to  say.  So  far  as  I  know,  psychologists  have  not  yet 
made  a  sufficiently  exact  study  of  the  nose  as  a 
determining  factor  in  matrimony,  to  warrant  an 
opinion  from  persons  who  have  made  no  special 
study  of  the  subject.  The  plain  fact  was  that  by  his 
twenty-fifth  year,  Washington  was  an  unusually 
presentable  young  man,  more  than  six  feet  tall, 
broad-shouldered,  very  strong,  slender  and  athletic, 
carefully  polite  in  his  manners,  a  boon  companion, 


THE  LIFE  OF  A  PLANTER  33 

though  he  talked  little,  a  sound  and  deliberate 
thinker;  moreover,  the  part  he  had  taken  in  the 
war  with  the  Indians  and  the  French  made  him 
almost  a  popular  hero,  and  gave  him  a  preeminent 
place  among  the  Virginians,  both  the  young  and  the 
old,  of  that  time.  The  possession  of  the  estate  of 
Mount  Vernon,  which  he  had  inherited  from  his 
half-brother,  Lawrence,  assured  to  him  more  than  a 
comfortable  fortune,  and  yet  gossip  wondered  why 
he  was  not  married.  Thackeray  intimates  that 
Washington  was  too  evidently  on  the  lookout  for  a 
rich  wife,  which,  if  true,  may  account  for  some  of 
the  alleged  rebuffs.  I  do  not  believe  this  assertion, 
nor  do  I  find  evidence  for  it.  Washington  was  always 
a  very  careful,  farseeing  person,  and  no  doubt  had  a 
clear  idea  of  what  constitutes  desirable  qualifications 
in  marriage,  but  I  believe  he  would  have  married  a 
poor  girl  out  of  the  workhouse  if  he  had  really  loved 
her.  However,  he  was  not  put  to  that  test. 

One  May  day  Washington  rode  off  from  Mount 
Vernon  to  carry  despatches  to  Williamsburg.  He 
stopped  at  William's  Ferry  for  dinner  with  his  friend 
Major  Chamberlayne.  At  the  table  was  Mrs.  Daniel 
Parke  Custis,  who,  under  her  maiden  name  of  Mar 
tha  Dandridge,  was  well  known  throughout  that 
region  for  her  beauty  and  sweet  disposition.  She 
was  now  a  widow  of  twenty-six,  with  two  small 


34  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

children.  Her  late  husband,  Colonel  Custis,  her 
elder  by  fifteen  years,  had  left  her  a  large  estate 
called  White  House,  and  a  fortune  which  made  her 
one  of  the  richest  women  in  Virginia.  From  their 
first  introduction,  Washington  and  she  seemed  to 
be  mutually  attracted.  He  lingered  throughout  the 
afternoon  and  evening  with  her  and  went  on  to 
Williamsburg  with  his  despatches  the  next  morning. 
Having  finished  his  business  at  the  Capitol,  he  re 
turned  to  William's  Ferry,  where  he  again  saw  Mrs 
Custis,  pressed  his  suit  upon  her  and  was  accepted 
Characteristic  was  it  that  he  should  conclude  the 
matter  so  suddenly;  but  he  had  had  marriage  in  his 
intentions  for  many  years. 

During  the  summer  Washington  returned  to  his 
military  duties  and  led  a  troop  to  Fort  Duquesne. 
He  found  the  fort  partly  demolished,  and  abandoned 
by  the  French ;  he  marched  in  and  took  it,  and  gave  it 
the  name  of  Fort  Pitt,  in  recognition  of  the  great 
statesman  who  had  directed  the  revival  of  British 
prestige.  The  fort,  thus  recovered  to  English  pos 
session,  stood  on  the  present  site  of  Pittsburgh.  I 
quote  the  following  brief  letter  from  Washington  to 
Mrs.  Custis,  as  it  is  almost  the  only  note  of  his  to  her 
during  their  engagement  that  has  been  preserved: 

We  have  begun  our  March  for  the  Ohio.  A  courier  is 
starting  for  Williamsburg,  and  I  embrace  the  opportu- 


Bv  Gilbert  Stuart 


THE  LIFE  OF  A  PLANTER  35 

nity  to  send  a  few  words  to  one  whose  life  is  now  insep 
arable  from  mine.  Since  that  happy  hour  when  we  made 
our  pledges  to  each  other,  my  thoughts  have  been  con 
tinually  going  to  you  as  another  Self.  That  an  all  power 
ful  Providence  may  keep  us  both  in  safety  is  the  prayer 
of  your  ever  faithful  and  affectionate  friend.1 

Late  in  that  autumn  Washington  returned  for  good 
from  his  Western  fighting.  On  January  6,  1759  (Old 
Style),  his  marriage  to  Mrs.  Custis  took  place  in  St. 
Peter's  Church,  near  her  home  at  the  White  House. 
Judging  from  the  fine  writing  which  old  historians  and 
new  have  devoted  to  describing  it,  Virginia  had  seen 
few  such  elegant  pageants  as  upon  that  occasion. 
The  grandees  in  official  station  and  in  social  life  were 
all  there.  Francis  Fauquier  was,  of  course,  gorgeous 
in  his  Governor's  robes  but  he  could  not  outshine 
the  bridegroom,  in  blue  and  silver  with  scarlet  trim 
mings,  and  gold  buckles  at  his  knees,  with  his  im 
perial  physique  and  carriage.  The  Reverend  Peter 
Mossum  conducted  the  Episcopal  service,  after 
which  the  bride  drove  back  with  a  coach  and  six 
to  the  White  House,  while  Washington,  with  other 
gentlemen,  rode  on  horseback  beside  her  acting  as 
escort. 

The  bridal  couple  spent  two  or  three  months  at  the 
White  House.  The  Custis  estates  were  large  and  in 
so  much  need  of  oversight  that  if  Washington  had 
1  P.  L.  Ford,  The  True  George  Washington,  93. 


36  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

not  appeared  at  this  time,  a  bailiff,  or  manager,  would 
have  had  to  be  hired  for  them.  Henceforth  Washing 
ton  seems  to  have  added  the  care  of  the  White  House 
to  that  of  Mount  Vernon,  and  the  two  involved  a 
burden  which  occupied  most  of  his  time,  for  he  had 
retired  from  the  army.  His  fellow  citizens,  however, 
had  elected  him  a  member  of  the  House  of  Burgesses, 
a  position  he  held  for  many  years;  going  to  Williams- 
burg  every  season  to  attend  the  sessions  of  the  As 
sembly.  On  his  first  entrance  to  take  his  seat,  Mr. 
Robinson,  the  Speaker,  welcomed  him  in  Virginia's 
name,  and  praised  him  for  his  high  achievements. 
This  so  embarrassed  the  modest  young  member  that 
he  was  unable  to  reply,  upon  which  Speaker  Robin 
son  said,  "Sit  down,  Mr.  Washington,  your  modesty 
is  equal  to  your  valor,  and  that  surpasses  the  power 
of  any  language  that  I  possess."  In  all  his  life,  prob 
ably,  Washington  never  heard  praise  more  genuine 
or  more  deserved.  He  had  just  passed  his  twenty- 
seventh  year.  In  the  House  of  Burgesses  he  had  the 
reputation  of  being  the  silent  member.  He  never  ac 
quired  the  art  of  a  debater.  He  was  neither  quick  at 
rebuttal  nor  at  repartee,  but  so  surely  did  his  char 
acter  impress  itself  on  every  one  that  when  he  spoke 
the  Assembly  almost  took  it  for  granted  that  he  had 
said  the  final  word  on  the  subject  under  discussion. 
How  careful  he  was  to  observe  the  scope  and  effects 


THE  LIFE  OF  A  PLANTER  37 

of  parliamentary  speaking  appears  from  a  letter 
which  he  wrote  many  years  later. 

Agriculture  has  always  been  a  particularly  fine 
training-ground  for  statesmen.  To  persons  who  do 
not  watch  it  closely,  it  may  seem  monotonous.  In 
reality,  while  the  sum  of  the  conditions  of  one  year 
tally  closely  with  those  of  another,  the  daily  changes 
and  variations  create  a  variety  which  must  be  con 
stantly  watched  and  provided  for.  A  sudden  freshet 
and  unseasonable  access  of  heat  or  cold,  a  scourge  of 
hail,  a  drought,  a  murrain  among  the  cattle,  call  for 
ingenuity  and  for  resourcefulness;  and  for  courage, 
a  higher  moral  quality.  Constant  comradeship  with 
Nature  seems  to  beget  placidity  and  quiet  assurance. 
From  using  the  great  natural  forces  which  bring  to 
pass  crops  and  the  seasons,  they  seem  to  work  in  and 
through  him  also.  The  banker,  the  broker,  even  the 
merchant,  lives  in  a  series  of  whirlwinds,  or  seems  to 
be  pursuing  a  mirage  or  groping  his  way  through  a 
fog.  The  farmer,  although  he  be  not  beyond  the 
range  of  accident,  deals  more  continually  with  causes 
which  regularly  produce  certain  effects.  He  knows  a 
rainbow  by  sight  and  does  not  waste  his  time  and 
money  in  chasing  it. 

No  better  idea  of  Washington's  activity  as  a 
planter  can  be  had  than  from  his  brief  and  terse 
journals  as  an  agriculturist.  He  sets  down  day  by 


38  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

day  what  he  did  and  what  his  slaves  and  the  free 
employees  did  on  all  parts  of  his  estate.  We  see  him 
as  a  regular  and  punctual  man.  He  had  a  moral  re 
pugnance  to  idleness.  He  himself  worked  steadily 
and  he  chided  the  incompetent,  the  shirkers,  and  the 
lazy. 

A  short  experience  as  landowner  convinced  him 
that  slave  labor  was  the  least  efficient  of  all.  This 
conviction  led  him  very  early  to  believe  in  the  eman 
cipation  of  the  slaves.  I  do  not  find  that  sentiment 
or  abstract  ideals  moved  him  to  favor  emancipation, 
but  his  sense  of  fitness,  his  aversion  to  wastefulness 
and  inefficiency  made  him  disapprove  of  a  system 
which  rendered  industry  on  a  high  plane  impossible. 
Experience  only  confirmed  these  convictions  of  his, 
and  in  his  will  he  ordered  that  many  slaves  should  be 
freed  after  the  death  of  Mrs.  Washington.  He  was 
careful  to  apportion  to  his  slaves  the  amount  of  food 
they  needed  in  order  to  keep  in  health  and  to  work 
the  required  stint.  He  employed  a  doctor  to  look 
after  them  in  sickness.  He  provided  clothing  for 
them  which  he  deemed  sufficient.  I  do  not  gather 
that  he  ever  regarded  the  black  man  as  being  essen 
tially  made  of  the  same  clay  as  the  white  man,  the 
chief  difference  being  the  color  of  their  skin.  To 
Washington,  the  Slave  System  seemed  bad,  not  so 
much  because  it  represented  a  debased  moral  stand- 


THE  LIFE  OF  A  PLANTER  39 

ard,  but  because  it  was  economically  and  socially 
inadequate.  His  true  character  appears  in  his  mak 
ing  the  best  of  a  system  which  he  recognized  as  most 
faulty.  Under  his  management,  in  a  few  years,  his 
estate  at  Mount  Vernon  became  the  model  of  that 
kind  of  plantation  in  the  South. 

Whoever  desires  to  understand  Washington's  life 
as  a  planter  should  read  his  diaries  with  their  brief, 
and  one  might  almost  say  brusque,  entries  from  day  to 
day.1  Washington's  care  involved  not  only  bringing 
the  Mount  Vernon  estate  to  the  highest  point  of  pros 
perity  by  improving  the  productiveness  of  its  va 
rious  sections,  but  also  by  buying  and  annexing  new 
pieces  of  land.  To  such  a  planter  as  he  was,  the 
ideal  was  to  raise  enough  food  to  supply  all  the  per 
sons  who  lived  or  worked  on  the  place,  and  this  he 
succeeded  in  doing.  His  chief  source  of  income,  which 
provided  him  with  ready  money,  was  the  tobacco 
crop,  which  proved  to  be  of  uncertain  value.  By 
Washington's  time  the  Virginians  had  much  dimin 
ished  the  amount  and  delicacy  of  the  tobacco  they 
raised  by  the  careless  methods  they  employed.  They 
paid  little  attention  to  the  rotation  of  crops,  or  to 
manuring,  with  the  result  that  the  soil  was  never 
properly  replenished.  In  his  earlier  days  Washing- 

1  See  for  instance  in  W.  C.  Ford's  edition  of  The  Writings  of  George 
Washington,  u,  140-69.   Diary  for  1760,  230-56.   Diary  for  1768. 


40  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

ton  shipped  his  year's  product  to  an  agent  in  Glasgow 
or  in  London,  who  sold  it  at  the  market  price  and 
sent  him  the  proceeds.  The  process  of  transporta 
tion  was  sometimes  precarious;  a  leaky  ship  might 
let  in  enough  sea  water  to  damage  the  tobacco,  and 
there  was  always  the  risk  of  loss  by  shipwreck  or 
other  accident.  Washington  sent  out  to  his  brokers 
a  list  of  things  which  he  desired  to  pay  for  out  of  the 
proceeds  of  the  sale,  to  be  sent  to  him.  These  lists 
are  most  interesting,  as  they  show  us  the  sort  of 
household  utensils  and  furniture,  the  necessaries 
and  the  luxuries,  and  the  apparel  used  in  a  mansion 
like  Mount  Vernon.  We  find  that  he  even  took  care 
to  order  a  fashionably  dressed  doll  for  little  Martha 
Custis  to  play  with. 

The  care  and  education  of  little  Martha  and  her 
brother,  John  Parke  Custis,  Washington  undertook 
with  characteristic  thoroughness  and  solicitude.  He 
had  an  instinct  for  training  growing  creatures.  He 
liked  to  experiment  in  breeding  horses  and  cattle 
and  the  farmyard  animals.  He  watched  the  growth 
of  his  plantations  of  trees,  and  he  was  all  the  more 
interested  in  studying  the  development  of  mental 
and  moral  capacities  in  the  little  children. 

In  due  time  a  tutor  was  engaged,  and  besides  the 
lessons  they  learned  in  their  schoolbooks,  they  were 
taught  both  music  and  dancing.  Little  Patsy  suf- 


THE  LIFE  OF  A  PLANTER  41 

fered  from  epilepsy,  and  after  the  prescriptions  of 
the  regular  doctors  had  done  no  good,  her  parents 
turned  to  a  quack  named  Evans,  who  placed  on  the 
child's  finger  an  iron  ring  supposed  to  have  miracu 
lous  virtues,  but  it  brought  her  no  relief,  and  very 
suddenly  little  Martha  Custis  died.  Washington 
himself  felt  the  loss  of  his  unfortunate  stepdaughter, 
but  he  was  unflagging  in  trying  to  console  the  mother, 
heartbroken  at  the  death  of  the  child. 

Jack  Custis  was  given  in  charge  of  the  Reverend 
Jonathan  Boucher,  an  Anglican  clergyman,  ap 
parently  well-meaning,  who  agreed  with  Washing 
ton's  general  view  that  the  boy's  training  "  should 
make  him  fit  for  more  useful  purposes  than  horse- 
racing."  In  spite  of  Washington's  carefully  reasoned 
plans,  the  youth  of  the  young  man  prevailed  over  the 
reason  of  his  stepfather.  Jack  found  dogs,  horses,  and 
guns,  and  consideration  of  dress  more  interesting  and 
more  important  than  his  stepfather's  theories  of  ed 
ucation.  Washington  wrote  to  Parson  Boucher,  the 
teacher: 

Had  he  begun,  or  rather  pursued  his  study  of  the 
Greek  language,  I  should  have  thought  it  no  bad  acqui 
sition  ;  ...  To  be  acquainted  with  the  French  Tongue  is 
become  a  part  of  polite  education ;  and  to  a  man  who  has 
the  prospect  of  mixing  in  a  large  circle,  absolutely  nec 
essary.  Without  arithmetic,  the  common  affairs  of  life 
are  not  to  be  managed  with  success.  The  study  of  Ge- 


42  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

ometry,  and  the  mathematics  (with  due  regard  to  the 
limits  of  it)  is  equally  advantageous.  The  principles  of 
Philosophy,  Moral,  Natural,  etc.  I  should  think  a  very 
desirable  knowledge  for  a  gentleman.1 

There  was  nothing  abstract  in  young  Jack  Cus- 
tis's  practical  response  to  his  stepfather's  reasoning; 
he  fell  in  love  with  Miss  Nelly  Calvert  and  asked  her 
to  marry  him.  Washington  was  forced  to  plead  with 
the  young  lady  that  the  youth  was  too  young  for 
marriage  by  several  years,  and  that  he  must  finish 
his  education.  Apparently  she  acquiesced  without 
making  a  scene.  She  accepted  a  postponement  of  the 
engagement,  and  Custis  was  enrolled  among  the 
students  of  King's  College  (subsequently  Columbia) 
in  New  York  City.  Even  then,  his  passion  for  an  edu 
cation  did  not  develop  as  his  parents  hoped.  He 
left  the  college  in  the  course  of  a  few  months. 
Throughout  John  Custis's  perversities,  and  as  long 
as  he  lived,  Washington's  kindness  and  real  affec 
tion  never  wavered.  Although  he  had  now  taught 
himself  to  practice  complete  self-control,  he  could 
treat  with  consideration  the  young  who  had  it  not. 

By  nature  Washington  was  a  man  of  business.  He 
wished  to  see  things  grow,  not  so  much  for  the  actual 
increase  in  value  which  that  indicated,  as  because 
increase  seemed  to  be  a  proof  of  proper  methods. 

1  W.  C.  Ford,  George  Washington  (1900),  I,  136-37. 


THE  LIFE  OF  A  PLANTER  43 

Not  content,  therefore,  with  rounding  out  his  hold 
ings  at  Mount  Vernon  and  Mrs.  Washington's  es 
tate  at  the  White  House,  he  sought  investment  in 
the  unsettled  lands  on  the  Ohio  and  in  Florida,  and 
on  the  Mississippi.  It  proved  to  be  a  long  time  be 
fore  the  advance  of  settlement  in  the  latter  regions 
made  his  investments  worth  much,  and  during  the 
decade  after  his  marriage  in  1759,  we  must  think  of 
him  as  a  man  of  great  energy  and  calm  judgment 
who  was  bent  not  only  on  making  Mount  Vernon  a 
model  country  place  on  the  outside,  but  a  civilized 
home  within.  In  its  furnishings  and  appointments  it 
did  not  fall  behind  the  manors  of  the  Virginia  men 
of  fashion  and  of  wealth  in  that  part  of  the  country. 
Before  Washington  left  the  army,  he  recognized  that 
his  education  had  been  irregular  and  inadequate, 
and  he  set  himself  to  make  good  his  defects  by  study 
ing  and  reading  for  himself.  There  were  no  public 
libraries,  but  some  of  the  gentlemen  made  collec 
tions  of  books.  They  learned  of  new  publications  in 
England  from  journals  which  were  few  in  number 
and  incomplete.  Doubtless  advertising  went  by 
word  of  mouth.  The  lists  of  things  desired  which 
Washington  sent  out  to  his  agents,  Robert  Gary  and 
Company,  once  a  year  or  oftener,  usually  contained 
the  titles  of  many  books,  chiefly  on  architecture,  and 
he  was  especially  intent  on  keeping  up  with  new 


44  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

methods  and  experiments  in  farming.  Thus,  among 
the  orders  in  May,  1759,  among  a  request  for  "Des 
ert  Glasses  and  Stand  for  Sweetmeats  Jellies,  etc.; 
50  Ibs.  Spirma  Citi  Candles;  stockings  etc.,"  he 
asks  for  "the  newest  and  most  approved  Treatise  of 
Agriculture  —  besides  this,  send  me  a  Small  piece 
in  Octavo  —  called  a  New  System  of  Agriculture, 
or  a  Speedy  Way  to  Grow  Rich;  Longley's  Book  of 
Gardening;  Gibson  upon  Horses,  the  latest  Edition 
in  Quarto."  This  same  invoice  contains  directions 
for  "the  Busts"  —  one  of  Alexander  the  Great,  an 
other  of  Charles  XII,  of  Sweden,  and  a  fourth  of  the 
King  of  Prussia  (Frederick  the  Great) ;  also  of  Prince 
Eugene  and  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  but  "some 
what  smaller."  Do  these  celebrities  represent  Wash 
ington's  heroes  in  1759? 

As  time  went  on,  his  commissions  for  books  were 
less  restricted  to  agriculture,  and  comprised  also 
works  on  history,  biography,  and  government. 

But  although  incessant  activity  devoted  to  various 
kinds  of  work  was  a  characteristic  of  Washington's 
life  at  Mount  Vernon,  his  attention  to  social  duties 
and  pleasures  was  hardly  less  important.  He  aimed 
to  be  a  country  gentleman  of  influence,  and  he  knew 
that  he  could  achieve  this  only  by  doing  his  share  of 
the  bountiful  hospitality  which  was  expected  of  such 
a  personage.  Virginia  at  that  time  possessed  no 


THE  LIFE  OF  A  PLANTER  45 

large  cities  or  towns  with  hotels.  When  the  gentry 
travelled,  they  put  up  overnight  at  the  houses  of 
other  gentry,  and  thus,  in  spite  of  very  restricted 
means  of  transportation,  the  inhabitants  of  one  part 
of  the  country  exchanged  ideas  with  those  of  another. 
In  this  way  also  the  members  of  the  upper  class  circu 
lated  among  themselves  and  acquired  a  solidarity 
which  otherwise  would  hardly  have  been  possible. 
We  are  told  that  Mount  Vernon  was  always  full  of 
guests;  some  of  these  being  casual  strangers  trav 
elling  through,  and  others  being  invited  friends  and 
acquaintances  on  a  visit.  There  were  frequent 
balls  and  parties  when  neighbors  from  far  and  near 
joined  in  some  entertainment  at  the  great  mansion. 
There  were  the  hunt  balls  which  Washington  him 
self  particularly  enjoyed,  hunting  being  his  favorite 
sport.  Fairfax  County,  where  Mount  Vernon  lay, 
and  its  neighboring  counties,  Fauquier  and  Prince 
William,  abounded  in  foxes,  and  the  land  was  not  too 
difficult  for  the  hunters,  who  copied  as  far  as  possible 
the  dress  and  customs  of  the  foxhunters  in  England. 
Possibly  there  might  be  a  meeting  at  Mount  Vernon 
of  the  local  politicians.  At  least  once  a  year  Wash 
ington  and  his  wife  —  "Lady,"  as  the  somewhat 
florid  Virginians  called  her  —  went  off  to  Williams- 
burg  to  attend  the  session  of  the  House  of  Burgesses. 
Washington  seldom  missed  going  to  the  horse-races, 


46  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

one  of  the  chief  functions  of  the  year,  not  only  for 
jockeys  and  sporting  men,  but  for  the  fashionable 
world  of  the  aristocracy.  Thanks  to  his  carefulness 
and  honesty  in  keeping  his  accounts,  we  have  his 
own  record  of  the  amounts  he  spent  at  cards  —  never 
large  amounts,  nor  indicative  of  the  gamester's 
passion. 

Thus  Washington  passed  the  first  ten  years  of  his 
married  life.  A  stranger  meeting  him  at  that  time 
might  have  little  suspected  that  here  was  the  future 
founder  of  a  nation,  one  who  would  prove  himself  the 
greatest  of  Americans,  if  not  the  greatest  of  men. 
But  if  you  had  spent  a  day  with  Washington,  and 
watched  him  at  work,  or  listened  to  his  few  but  deci 
sive  words,  or  seen  his  benign  but  forcible  smile,  you 
would  have  said  to  yourself  —  "This  man  is  equal 
to  any  fate  that  destiny  may  allot  to  him." 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  FIRST  GUN 

MEANWHILE  the  course  of  events  was  leading 
toward  a  new  and  unexpected  goal.  Chief 
Justice  Marshall  said,  as  I  have  quoted,  that  1763, 
the  end  of  the  French- Indian  War,  marked  the  great 
est  friendship  and  harmony  between  the  Colonies 
and  England.  The  reason  is  plain.  In  their  incessant 
struggles  with  the  French  and  the  Indians,  the  Col 
onists  had  discovered  a  real  champion  and  protector. 
That  protector,  England,  had  found  that  she  must 
really  protect  the  Colonies  unless  she  was  willing  to 
see  them  fall  into  the  hands  of  her  rival,  France. 
Putting  forth  her  strength,  she  crushed  France  in 
America,  and  remained  virtually  in  control  not  only 
of  the  Colonies  and  territory  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Mississippi,  but  also  of  British  America.  In  these 
respects  the  Colonies  and  the  Mother  Country 
seemed  destined  to  be  bound  more  closely  together; 
but  the  very  spirit  by  which  Britain  had  conquered 
France  in  America,  and  France  in  India,  and  had 
made  England  paramount  throughout  the  world, 
prevented  the  further  fusion,  moral,  social,  and  po 
litical,  of  the  Colonies  with  the  Mother  Country, 


48  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

That  spirit  was  the  Imperial  Spirit,  which  Plassey 
and  Quebec  had  called  to  life.  The  narrow  Hanove 
rian  King,  who  now  ruled  England,  could  not  him 
self  have  devised  the  British  Empire,  but  when  the 
Empire  crystallized,  George  III  rightly  surmised 
that,  however  it  had  come  about,  it  meant  a  large 
increase  in  power  for  him.  The  Colonies  and  De 
pendencies  were  to  be  governed  like  conquered 
provinces.  Evidently,  the  Hindus  of  Bengal  could 
hardly  be  treated  in  the  same  fashion  as  were  the 
Colonists  of  Massachusetts  or  Virginia.  The  Benga- 
lese  knew  that  there  was  no  bond  of  language  or  of 
race  between  them  and  their  conquerors,  whereas 
American  Colonists  knew  that  they  and  the  British 
sprang  from  the  same  race  and  spoke  the  same  lan 
guage.  One  of  the  first  realizations  that  came  to  the 
British  Imperialists  was  that  the  ownership  of  the 
conquered  people  or  state  warranted  the  conquerors 
in  enriching  themselves  from  the  conquered.  But 
while  this  might  do  very  well  in  India,  and  be  ac 
cepted  there  as  a  matter  of  course,  it  would  be  most 
ill-judged  in  the  American  Colonies,  for  the  Colonists 
were  not  a  foreign  nor  a  conquered  people.  They 
originally  held  grants  of  land  from  the  British  Crown, 
but  they  had  worked  that  land  themselves  and 
settled  the  wilderness  by  their  own  efforts,  and  had 
a  right  to  whatever  they  might  earn. 


THE  FIRST  GUN  49 

The  Tory  ideals,  which  took  possession  of  the 
British  Government  when  Lord  Bute  succeeded  to 
William  Pitt  in  power,  were  soon  applied  to  England's 
relations  to  the  American  Colonies.  The  Seven 
Years'  War  left  England  heavily  in  debt.  She  needed 
larger  revenues,  and  being  now  swayed  by  Imperial 
ism,  she  easily  found  reasons  for  taxing  the  Colonies. 
In  1765  she  passed  the  Stamp  Act  which  caused  so 
much  bad  feeling  that  in  less  than  a  year  she  decided 
to  repeal  it,  but  new  duties  on  paper,  glass,  tea,  and 
other  commodities  were  imposed  instead.  In  the 
North,  Massachusetts  took  the  lead  in  opposing 
what  the  Colonists  regarded  as  the  unconstitutional 
acts  of  the  Crown.  The  patriotic  lawyer  of  Boston, 
James  Otis,  shook  the  Colony  with  his  eloquence 
against  the  illegal  encroachments  and  actual  tyranny 
of  the  English.  Other  popular  orators  of  equal  emi 
nence,  John  and  Samuel  Adams  and  Josiah  Quincy, 
fanned  the  flames  of  discontent.  Even  the  most 
radical  did  not  yet  whisper  the  terrible  word  Revolu 
tion,  or  suggest  that  they  aspired  to  independence. 
They  simply  demanded  their  " rights"  which  the 
arrogant  and  testy  British  Tories  had  shattered  and 
were  withholding  from  them.  At  the  outset  rebels 
seldom  admit  that  their  rebellion  aims  at  new  ac 
quisitions,  but  only  at  the  recovery  of  the  old. 

Next  to  Massachusetts,  Virginia  was  the  most 


50  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

vigorous  of  the  Colonies  in  protesting  against  British 
usurpation  of  power,  which  would  deprive  them  of 
their  liberty.  Although  Virginia  had  no  capital  city 
like  Boston,  in  which  the  chief  political  leaders  might 
gather  and  discuss  and  plan,  and  mobs  might  as 
semble  and  equip  with  physical  force  the  impulses  of 
popular  indignation,  the  Old  Dominion  had  means, 
just  as  the  Highland  clans  or  the  Arab  tribes  had,  of 
keeping  in  touch  with  each  other.  Patrick  Henry,  a 
young  Virginia  lawyer  of  sturdy  Scotch  descent,  by 
his  flaming  eloquence  was  easily  first  among  the 
spokesmen  of  the  rights  of  the  Colonists  in  Virginia. 
In  the  "  Parsons  Cause/'  a  lawsuit  which  might  have 
passed  quickly  into  oblivion  had  he  not  seen  the 
vital  implications  concerned  in  it,  he  denied  the  right 
of  the  King  to  veto  an  act  of  the  Virginia  Assembly, 
which  had  been  passed  for  the  good  of  the  people 
of  Virginia.  In  the  course  of  the  trial  he  declared, 
"  Government  was  a  conditional  compact  between 
the  King,  stipulating  protection  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  people,  stipulating  obedience  and  support 
on  the  other,"  and  he  asserted  that  a  violation  of 
these  covenants  by  either  party  discharged  the  other 
party  from  its  obligations.  Doctrines  as  outspoken 
as  these  uttered  in  court,  whether  right  or  wrong,  in 
dicated  that  the  attorney  who  uttered  them,  and 
the  judge  who  listened,  and  the  audience  who  ap- 


THE  FIRST  GUN  51 

plauded,  were  not  blind  worshippers  of  the  illegal 
rapacity  of  the  Crown. 

Patrick  Henry  was  the  most  spectacular  of  the 
early  champions  of  the  Colonists  in  Virginia,  but 
many  others  of  them  agreed  with  him.  Among  these 
the  weightiest  was  the  silent  George  Washington. 
He  said  little,  but  his  opinions  passed  from  mouth  to 
mouth,  and  convinced  many.  In  1765  he  wrote  to 
Francis  Dandridge,  an  uncle  of  Mrs.  Washington: 

The  Stamp  Act  imposed  on  the  colonies  by  the  Par 
liament  of  Great  Britain,  engrosses  the  conversation  of 
the  speculative  part  of  the  colonists,  who  look  upon  this 
unconstitutional  method  of  taxation,  as  a  direful  attack 
upon  their  liberties,  and  loudly  exclaim  against  the  vio 
lation.  What  may  be  the  result  of  this,  and  of  some 
other  (I  think  I  may  add)  ill-judged  measures,  I  will  not 
undertake  to  determine;  but  this  I  may  venture  to  af 
firm,  that  the  advantage  accruing  to  the  mother  coun 
try  will  fall  greatly  short  of  the  expectations  of  the  min 
istry;  for  certain  it  is,  that  an  whole  substance  does 
already  in  a  manner  flow  to  Great  Britain,  and  that 
whatsoever  contributes  to  lessen  our  importations  must 
be  hurtful  to  their  manufacturers.  And  the  eyes  of  our 
people,  already  beginning  to  open,  will  perceive,  that 
many  luxuries,  which  we  lavish  our  substance  in  Great 
Britain  for,  can  well  be  dispensed  with,  whilst  the  neces 
saries  of  life  are  (mostly)  to  be  had  within  ourselves. 
This,  consequently,  will  introduce  frugality,  and  be  a 
necessary  stimulation  to  industry.  If  Great  Britain, 
therefore,  loads  her  manufacturies  with  heavy  taxes, 
will  it  not  facilitate  these  measures?  They  will  not  com 
pel  us,  I  think,  to  give  our  money  for  their  exports, 


52  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

whether  we  will  or  not;  and  certain  I  am,  none  of  their 
traders  will  part  from  them  without  a  valuable  consid 
eration.  Where  then,  is  the  utility  of  the  restrictions? 
As  to  the  Stamp  Act,  taken  in  a  single  view,  one  and 
the  first  bad  consequence  attending  it,  I  take  to  be  this, 
our  courts  of  judicature  must  inevitably  be  shut  up;  for 
it  is  impossible,  (or  next  of  kin  to  it),  under  our  present 
circumstances,  that  the  act  of  Parliament  can  be  com 
plied  with,  were  we  ever  so  willing  to  enforce  the  execu 
tion;  for,  not  to  say,  which  alone  would  be  sufficient, 
that  we  have  not  money  to  pay  the  stamps,  there  are 
many  other  cogent  reasons,  to  prevent  it;  and  if  a  stop 
be  put  to  our  judicial  proceedings,  I  fancy  the  merchants 
of  Great  Britain,  trading  to  the  colonies,  will  not  be 
among  the  last  to  wish  for  a  repeal  of  it.1 

This  passage  would  suffice,  were  there  not  many 
similar  which  might  be  quoted,  to  prove  that  Wash 
ington  was  from  the  start  a  loyal  American.  A  legend 
which  circulated  during  his  lifetime,  and  must  have 
been  fabricated  by  his  enemies,  for  I  find  no  evidence 
to  support  it  either  in  his  letters  or  in  other  trust 
worthy  testimony,  insinuated  that  he  was  British  at 
heart  and  threw  his  lot  in  with  the  Colonists  only 
when  war  could  not  be  averted.  In  1770  the  mer 
chants  of  Philadelphia  drew  up  an  agreement  in 
which  they  pledged  themselves  to  practise  non-im 
portation  of  British  goods  sent  to  America.  Wash 
ington's  wise  neighbor  and  friend,  George  Mason, 
drafted  a  plan  of  association  of  similar  purport  to  be 
1  Ford,  n,  209-10. 


THE  FIRST  GUN  53 

laid  before  the  Virginia  Burgesses.  But  Lord  Bote- 
tourt,  the  new  Royal  Governor,  deemed  some  of 
these  resolutions  dangerous  to  the  prerogative  of  the 
King,  and  dissolved  the  Assembly.  The  Burgesses, 
however,  met  at  Anthony  Hay's  house  and  adopted 
Mason's  Association.  Washington,  who  was  one  of 
the  signers  of  the  Association,  wrote  to  his  agents  in 
London:  "  I  am  fully  determined  to  adhere  religiously 
to  it." 

Five  years  had  now  elapsed  since  the  British  To 
ries  attempted  to  fix  on  the  Colonies  the  Stamp  Act, 
and  although  they  had  withdrawn  that  hateful  law, 
the  relations  between  the  Mother  Country  and  the 
Colonists  had  not  improved.  Far  from  it.  The 
English  issued  a  series  of  irritating  provisions  which 
convinced  the  Colonists  that  the  Government  had 
no  real  desire  to  be  friendly,  and  that,  on  the  con 
trary,  it  intended  to  make  no  distinction  between 
them  and  the  other  conquered  provinces  of  the 
Crown.  Then  and  always,  the  English  forgot  that 
the  Colonists  were  men  of  their  own  stock,  equally 
stubborn  in  their  devotion  to  principles,  and  prob 
ably  more  accessible  to  scruples  of  conscience.  So 
they  were  not  likely  to  be  frightened  into  subjection. 
The  governing  class  in  England  was  in  a  state  of 
mind  which  has  darkened  its  judgment  more  than 
once;  the  state  of  mind  which,  when  it  encounters  an 


54  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

obstacle  to  its  plans,  regards  that  obstacle  as  an 
enemy,  and  remarks  in  language  brutally  frank, 
though  not  wholly  elegant:  "We  will  lick  him  first 
and  then  decide  who  is  right."  In  1770  King  George 
III,  who  fretted  at  all  seasons  at  the  slowness  with 
which  he  was  able  to  break  down  the  ascendency  of 
the  Whigs,  manipulated  the  Government  so  as  to 
make  Lord  North  Prime  Minister.  Lord  North  was 
a  servant,  one  might  say  a  lackey,  after  the  King's 
own  heart.  He  abandoned  lifelong  traditions,  prin 
ciples,  fleeting  whims,  prejudices  even,  in  order  to 
keep  up  with  the  King's  wish  of  the  moment.  After 
Lord  North  became  Prime  Minister,  the  likelihood 
of  a  peaceful  settlement  between  the  crown  and  the 
Colonies  lessened.  He  ran  ahead  of  the  King  in  his 
desire  to  serve  the  King's  wishes,  and  George  III, 
by  this  time,  was  wrought  up  by  the  persistent 
tenacity  of  the  Whigs  —  he  wished  them  dead,  but 
they  would  not  die  —  and  he  was  angered  by  the  in 
solence  of  the  Colonists  who  showed  that  they  would 
not  shrink  from  forcibly  resisting  the  King's  com 
mand.  On  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  a  vehement  and 
most  enlightening  debate  over  constitutional  and 
legal  fundamentals  still  went  on.  Although  the  King 
had  packed  Parliament,  not  all  the  oratory  poured 
out  at  Westminster  favored  the  King.  On  the  con 
trary,  the  three  chief  masters  of  British  eloquence 


THE  FIRST  GUN  55 

at  that  time,  and  in  all  time  —  Edmund  Burke, 
William  Pitt,  and  Charles  James  Fox  —  spoke  on 
the  side  of  the  Colonists.  Reading  the  magnificent 
arguments  of  Burke  to-day,  we  ask  ourselves  how 
any  group  in  Parliament  could  have  withstood  them. 
But  there  comes  a  moment  in  every  vital  discussion 
when  arguments  and  logic  fail  to  convince.  Pas 
sions  deeper  than  logic  controlled  motives  and  ac 
tions.  The  Colonists  contended  that  in  proclaiming 
"no  taxation  without  representation,"  they  were 
appealing  to  a  principle  of  Anglo-Saxon  liberty  in 
herent  in  their  race.  When  King  George,  or  any  one 
else,  denied  this  principle,  he  denied  an  essential 
without  which  Anglo-Saxon  polity  could  not  sur 
vive,  but  neither  King  George  nor  Lord  North  ac 
cepted  the  premises.  If  they  had  condescended  to 
reply  at  all,  they  might  have  sung  the  hymn  of  their 
successors  a  hundred  years  later: 

"  We  don't  want  to  fight, 
But  by  jingo!  if  we  do, 
We've  got  the  men,  we've  got  the  ships, 
We've  got  the  money  too." 

Meanwhile,  the  Virginia  Planter  watched  the 
course  of  events,  pursued  his  daily  business  regularly, 
attended  the  House  of  Burgesses  when  it  was  in 
session,  said  little,  but  thought  much.  He  did  not 
break  out  into  invective  or  patriotic  appeals.  No 


56  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

doubt  many  of  his  acquaintances  thought  him  luke 
warm  in  spirit  and  non-committal;  but  persons  who 
knew  him  well  knew  what  his  decision  must  be. 
As  early  as  April  5,  1769,  he  wrote  his  friend, 
George  Mason: 

At  a  time,  when  our  lordly  masters  in  Great  Britain 
will  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less  than  the  deprivation 
of  American  freedom,  it  seems  highly  necessary  that 
something  should  be  done  to  avert  the  stroke,  and  main 
tain  the  liberty,  which  we  have  derived  from  our  ances 
tors.  But  the  manner  of  doing  it,  to  answer  the  purpose 
effectually,  is  the  point  in  question. 

That  no  man  should  scruple,  or  hesitate  a  moment,  to 
use  a — ms  in  defence  of  so  valuable  a  blessing,  on  which 
all  the  good  and  evil  of  life  depends,  is  clearly  my  opinion. 
Yet  a — ms,  I  would  beg  leave  to  add,  should  be  the  last 
resource,  the  dernier  resort.  Addresses  to  the  throne, 
and  remonstrances  to  Parliament,  we  have  already,  it 
is  said,  proved  the  inefficiency  of.  How  far,  then,  their 
attention  to  our  rights  and  privileges  is  to  be  awakened 
or  alarmed,  by  starving  their  trade  and  manufacturers, 
remains  to  be  tried.1 

Thus  wrote  the  Silent  Member  six  years  before 
the  outbreak  of  hostilities,  and  he  did  not  then  dis 
play  any  doubt  either  of  his  patriotism,  or  of  the 
course  which  every  patriot  must  take.  To  his  inti 
mates  he  spoke  with  point-blank  candor.  Years 
later,  George  Mason  wrote  to  him: 

I  never  forgot  your  declaration,  when  I  had  last  the 
pleasure  of  being  at  your  house  in  1768,  that  you  were 

1  Ford,  n,  263-64. 


THE  FIRST  GUN  57 

ready  to  take  your  musket  upon  your  shoulder  whenever 
your  country  called  upon  you. 

Some  writers  point  out  that  Washington  excelled 
rather  as  a  critic  of  concrete  plans  than  of  constitu 
tional  and  legal  aspects.  Perhaps  this  is  true.  As 
suredly  he  had  no  formal  legal  training.  There  were 
many  other  men  in  Massachusetts,  in  Virginia,  and 
in  some  of  the  other  Colonies,  who  could  and  did 
analyze  minutely  the  Colonists'  protest  against  tax 
ation  without  representation,  and  the  British  re 
buttal  thereof;  but  Washington's  strength  lay  in  his 
primal  wisdom,  the  wisdom  which  is  based  not  on 
conventions,  even  though  they  be  laws  and  consti 
tutions,  but  on  a  knowledge  of  the  ways  in  which 
men  will  react  toward  each  other  in  their  primitive, 
natural  relations.  In  this  respect  he  was  one  of  the 
wisest  among  the  statesmen. 

He  does  not  seem  to  have  joined  in  such  clandes 
tine  methods  as  those  of  the  Committees  of  Corre 
spondence,  which  Samuel  Adams  and  some  of  the 
most  radical  patriots  in  the  Bay  State  had  organized, 
but  he  said  in  the  Virginia  Convention,  in  1774:  "I 
will  raise  one  thousand  men,  subsist  them  at  my  own 
expense  and  march  myself  at  their  head  for  the  re 
lief  of  Boston."  l  The  ardor  of  Washington's  offer 
matched  the  increasing  anger  of  the  Colonists.  Lord 
1  John  Adams's  Diary,  August  31,  1774,  quoting  Lynch. 


58  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

North,  abetted  by  the  British  Parliament,  had  con 
tinued  to  exasperate  them  by  passing  new  bills  which 
could  have  produced  under  the  best  circumstances 
only  a  comparatively  small  revenue.  One  of  these 
imposed  a  tax  on  tea.  The  Colonists  not  only  refused 
to  buy  it,  but  to  have  it  landed.  In  Boston  a  large 
crowd  gathered  and  listened  to  much  fiery  speech- 
making.  Suddenly,  a  body  of  fifty  men  disguised  as 
Mohawk  Indians  rushed  down  to  the  wharves,  rowed 
out  to  the  three  vessels  in  which  a  large  consignment 
of  tea  had  been  sent  across  the  ocean,  hoisted  it  out 
of  the  holds  to  the  decks  and  scattered  the  contents 
of  three  hundred  and  forty  chests  in  Boston  Harbor. 
The  Boston  Tea  Party  was  as  sensational  as  if  it 
had  sprung  from  the  brain  of  a  Paris  Jacobin  in  the 
French  Revolution.  It  created  excitement  among 
the  American  Colonists  from  Portsmouth  to  Charles 
ton.  Six  more  of  the  Colonies  enrolled  Committees 
of  Correspondence,  Pennsylvania  alone  refusing  to 
join.  In  every  quarter  American  patriots  felt  ex 
alted.  In  England  the  reverse  effects  were  signalized 
with  equal  vehemence.  The  Mock  Indians  were 
denounced  as  incendiaries,  and  the  town  meetings 
were  condemned  as  "  nurseries  of  sedition."  Parlia 
ment  passed  four  penal  laws,  the  first  of  which  pun 
ished  Boston  by  transferring  its  port  to  Salem  and 
closing  its  harbor.  The  second  law  suspended  the 


THE  FIRST  GUN  59 

charter  of  the  Province  and  added  several  new  and 
tyrannical  powers  to  the  British  Governor  and  to 
Crown  officials. 

On  September  5,  1774,  the  first  Continental  Con 
gress  met  in  Philadelphia.  Except  Georgia,  every 
Colony  sent  delegates  to  it.  The  election  of  those 
delegates  was  in  several  cases  irregular,  because  the 
body  which  chose  them  was  not  the  Legislature  but 
some  temporary  body  of  the  patriots.  Nevertheless, 
the  Congress  numbered  some  of  the  men  who  were 
actually  and  have  remained  in  history,  the  great 
engineers  of  the  American  Revolution.  Samuel 
Adams  and  John  Adams  went  from  Massachusetts; 
John  Jay  and  Robert  R.  Livingston  from  New  York; 
Roger  Sherman  and  Oliver  Ellsworth  from  Connec 
ticut;  Alexander  Hamilton  and  Thomas  McKean 
from  Pennsylvania;  George  Washington,  Patrick 
Henry,  and  Thomas  Jefferson,  and  the  Pendletons 
and  Randolphs  from  Virginia ;  and  the  Rutledges  and 
Pinckneys  from  South  Carolina.  Although  the  Con 
gress  was  made  up  of  these  men  and  of  others  like 
them,  the  petitions  adopted  by  it  and  the  work  done, 
not  to  mention  the  freshets  of  oratory,  were  aston 
ishingly  mild.  Probably  many  of  the  delegates  would 
have  preferred  to  use  fiery  tongues.  Samuel  Adams, 
for  instance,  though  "prematurely  gray,  palsied  in 
hand,  and  trembling  in  voice,"  must  have  had  dif- 


60  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

ficulty  in  restraining  himself.  He  wrote  as  viciously 
as  he  spoke.  "Damn  that  Adams,"  said  one  of  his 
enemies.  "Every  dip  of  his  pen  stings  like  a  horned 
snake."  Patrick  Henry,  being  asked  when  he  re 
turned  home,  "Who  is  the  greatest  man  in  Congress," 
replied:  "If  you  speak  of  eloquence,  Mr.  Rutledge 
of  South  Carolina  is  by  far  the  greatest  orator;  but 
if  you  speak  of  solid  information  and  sound  judg 
ment,  Colonel  Washington  is  unquestionably  the 
greatest  man  on  that  floor."  The  rumor  had  it  that 
Washington  said,  he  wished  to  God  the  Liberties 
of  America  were  to  be  determined  by  a  single  Com 
bat  between  himself  and  George.  One  other  saying 
of  his  at  this  time  is  worth  reporting,  although  it 
cannot  be  satisfactorily  verified.  "More  blood  will 
be  spilled  on  this  occasion,  if  the  ministry  are  deter 
mined  to  push  matters  to  extremity,  than  history  has 
ever  yet  furnished  instances  of  in  the  annals  of  North 
America."  The  language  and  tone  of  the  "Summary 
View"  —  a  pamphlet  which  Thomas  Jefferson  had 
issued  shortly  before  —  probably  chimed  with  the 
emotions  of  most  of  the  delegates.  They  adopted 
(October  14,  1774)  the  "Declaration  of  Rights," 
which  may  not  have  seemed  belligerent  enough  for 
the  Radicals,  but  really  leaves  little  unsaid.  A  week 
later  Congress  agreed  to  an  "Association,"  an  in 
strument  for  regulating,  by  preventing,  trade  with 


COLONEL  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 
By  Charles  Willson  Peale.  1772 


THE  FIRST  GUN  61 

the  English.   Having  provided  for  the  assembling  of 
a  second  Congress,  the  first  adjourned. 

As  a  symbol,  the  First  Congress  has  an  integral 
importance  in  the  growth  of  American  Independence. 
It  marked  the  first  time  that  the  American  Colonies 
had  acted  together  for  their  collective  interests.  It 
served  notice  on  King  George  and  Lord  North  that 
it  repudiated  the  claims  of  the  British  Parliament  to 
govern  the  Colonies.  It  implied  that  it  would  repel 
by  force  every  attempt  of  the  British  to  exercise  an 
authority  which  the  Colonists  refused  to  recognize. 
In  a  very  real  sense  the  Congress  thus  delivered  an 
ultimatum.  The  winter  of  1774/5  saw  preparations 
being  pushed  on  both  sides.  General  Thomas  Gage, 
the  British  Commander-in-Chief  stationed  at  Bos 
ton,  ;had  also  thrusl  upon  him  the  civil  government 
of  that  town.  He  had  some  five  thousand  British 
troops  in  Boston,  and  several  men-of-war  in  the 
harbor.  There  were  no  overt  acts,  but  the  speed  with 
which,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  large  bodies  of 
Colonial  farmers  assembled  and  twent  swinging 
through  the  country  to  rescue  some  place,  which  it 
was  falsely  reported  the  British  were  attacking, 
showed  the  nervous  tension  under  which  the  Ameri 
cans  were  living.  As  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Patriots 
increased,  that  of  the  Loyalists  increased  also. 
Among  the  latter  were  many  of  the  rich  and  aristo- 


62  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

cratic  inhabitants,  and,  of  course,  most  of  the  office 
holders.  Until  the  actual  outbreak  of  hostilities  they 
upheld  the  King's  cause  with  more  chivalry  than 
discretion,  and  then  they  migrated  to  Nova  Scotia 
and  to  England,  and  bore  the  penalty  of  confiscation 
and  the  corroding  distress  of  exile.  In  England  dur 
ing  this  winter,  Pitt  and  Burke  had  defended  the  Col 
onies  and  the  Whig  minority  had  supported  them. 
Even  Lord  North  used  conciliatory  suggestions,  but 
with  him  conciliation  meant  that  the  Colonies  should 
withdraw  all  their  offensive  demands  and  kneel  be 
fore  the  Crown  in  penitent  humiliation  before  a  new 
understanding  could  be  thought  of. 

Meanwhile  Colonel  Washington  was  in  Virginia 
running  his  plantations  to  the  best  of  his  ability  and 
with  his  mind  made  up.  He  wrote  to  his  friend 
Bryan  Fairfax  (July  20,  1774)- 

As  I  see  nothing,  on  the  one  hand,  to  induce  a  belief 
that  the  Parliament  would  embrace  a  favorable  oppor 
tunity  of  repealing  acts,  which  they  go  on  with  great 
rapidity  to  pass,  and  in  order  to  enforce  their  tyrannical 
system;  and  on  the  other,  I  observe,  or  think  I  observe, 
that  government  is  pursuing  a  regular  plan  at  the  ex 
pense  of  law  and  justice  to  overthrow  our  constitutional 
rights  and  liberties,  how  can  I  expect  any  redress  from  a 
measure,  which  has  been  ineffectually  tried  already? 
For,  Sir,  what  is  it  we  are  contending  against?  Is  it 
against  paying  the  duty  of  three  pence  per  pound  on 
tea  because  burthensome?  No,  it  is  the  right  only,  we 
have  all  along  disputed,  and  to  this  end  we  have  already 


THE  FIRST  GUN  63 

petitioned  his  Majesty  in  as  humble  and  dutiful  manner 
as  subjects  could  do.1  .  .  . 

And  has  not  General  Gage's  conduct  since  his  arrival, 
(in  stopping  the  address  of  his  Council,  and  publishing  a 
proclamation  more  becoming  a  Turkish  bashaw,  than  an 
English  governor,  declaring  it  treason  to  associate  in  any 
manner  by  which  the  commerce  of  Great  Britain  is  to 
be  affected)  exhibited  an  unexampled  testimony  of  the 
most  despotic  system  of  tyranny,  that  ever  was  prac 
tised  in  a  free  government?  In  short,  what  further 
proofs  are  wanted  to  satisfy  one  of  the  designs  of  the 
ministry,  than  their  own  acts,  which  are  uniform  and 
plainly  tending  to  the  same  point,  nay,  if  I  mistake  not, 
avowedly  to  fix  the  right  of  taxation?  What  hope  then 
from  petitioning,  when  they  tell  us,  that  now  or  never 
is  the  time  to  fix  the  matter?  Shall  we  after  this,  whine 
and  cry  for  relief,  when  we  have  already  tried  it  in  vain? 
Or  shall  we  supinely  sit  and  see  one  province  after  an 
other  fall  a  prey  to  despotism?  2 

In  the  early  autumn  Washington  wrote  to  Cap 
tain  Robert  MacKenzie,  who  was  serving  in  the 
Regular  British  Army  with  Gage  at  Boston: 

I  think  I  can  announce  it  as  a  fact,  that  it  is  not  the 
wish  or  intent  of  that  government,  (Massachusetts)  or 
any  other  upon  this  continent,  separately  or  collectively, 
to  set  up  for  independence;  but  this  you  may  at  the 
same  time  rely  on,  that  none  of  them  will  ever  submit  to 
the  loss  of  these  valuable  rights  and  privileges,  which  are 
essential  to  the  happiness  of  every  free  state,  and  with 
out  which,  life,  liberty,  and  property  are  rendered  to 
tally  insecure.3 

In  the  following  spring  the  battles  of  Lexington 
1  Ford,  n,  421-22,  *  Ibid.,  423-24.  *  Ibid.,  443. 


64  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

and  Concord,  on  April  iQth,  began  the  war  of  the 
American  Revolution.  A  few  weeks  later,  a  Second 
Continental  Congress  met  in  Philadelphia.  The 
delegates  to  it,  understanding  that  they  must  pre 
pare  for  war,  proceeded  to  elect  a  Commander-in- 
Chief.  There  was  some  jealousy  between  the  men  of 
Virginia  and  those  of  Massachusetts.  The  former 
seemed  to  think  that  the  latter  assumed  the  first 
position,  and  indeed,  most  of  the  angry  gestures  had 
been  made  in  Boston,  and  Boston  had  been  the 
special  object  of  British  punishment.  Still,  with 
what  may  seem  unexpected  self-effacement,  they 
did  not  press  strongly  for  the  choice  of  a  Massachu 
setts  man  as  Commander-in-Chief.  On  June  15, 
1775,  Congress  having  resolved  "that  a  general  be 
appointed  to  command  all  the  continental  forces 
raised  or  to  be  raised  for  the  defence  of  American 
liberty,"  proceeded  to  a  choice,  and  the  ballots  being 
taken,  George  Washington,  Esq.,  was  unanimously 
elected.  On  the  next  day  the  President  of  the 
Congress,  Mr.  John  Hancock,  formally  announced 
the  election  to  Colonel  Washington,  who  replied: 

Mr.  President,  though  I  am  truly  sensible  of  the  high 
honor  done  me  in  this  appointment,  yet  I  feel  great  dis 
tress  from  a  consciousness  that  my  abilities  and  mili 
tary  experience  may  not  be  equal  to  the  extensive  and 
important  trust.  However,  as  the  Congress  desire  it,  I 
will  enter  upon  the  momentous  duty  and  exert  every 


THE  FIRST  GUN  65 

power  I  possess  in  the  service  and  for  the  support  of  the 
glorious  cause.  I  beg  they  will  accept  my  most  cordial 
thanks  for  this  distinguished  testimony  of  their  appro 
bation.  But  lest  some  unlucky  event  should  happen 
unfavorable  to  my  reputation,  I  beg  it  may  be  remem 
bered  by  every  gentleman  in  the  room,  that  I  this  day 
declare  with  the  utmost  sincerity  I  do  not  think  my 
self  equal  to  the  command  I  am  honored  with. 

As  to  pay,  Sir,  I  beg  leave  to  assure  the  Congress,  that 
as  no  pecuniary  consideration  could  have  tempted  me 
to  accept  this  arduous  employment  at  the  expense  of 
my  domestic  ease  and  happiness,  I  do  not  wish  to  make 
any  profit  from  it.  I  will  keep  an  exact  account  of  my 
expenses.  Those  I  doubt  not  they  will  discharge,  and 
that  is  all  I  desire.1 

Accompanied  by  Lee  and  Schuyler  and  a  brilliant 
escort,  he  set  forth  on  June  2ist  for  Boston.  Before 
they  had  gone  twenty  miles  a  messenger  bringing 
news  of  the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill  crossed  them. 
"Did  the  Militia  fight?"  Washington  asked.  On 
being  told  that  they  did,  he  said:  "Then  the  liber 
ties  of  the  country  are  safe."  Then  he  pushed  on, 
stopping  long  enough  in  New  York  to  appoint  Gen 
eral  Schuyler  military  commander  of  that  Colony, 
and  so  through  Connecticut  to  the  old  Bay  State. 
There,  at  Cambridge,  he  found  the  crowd  awaiting 
him  and  some  of  the  Colonial  troops.  On  the  edge 
of  the  Common,  under  a  large  elm  tree  broad  of 
spread,  he  took  command  of  the  first  American 
army.  It  was  the  second  of  July,  1775. 

1  Ford,  n,  477-78-79,  480-81. 


CHAPTER  IV 
BOSTON  FREED 

THUS  began  what  seems  to  us  now  an  impos 
sible  war.  Although  it  had  been  brooding  for 
ten  years,  since  the  Stamp  Act,  which  showed  that 
the  ties  of  blood  and  of  tradition  meant  nothing  to 
the  British  Tories,  now  that  it  had  come,  the  Col 
onists  may  well  have  asked  themselves  what  it  meant. 
Probably,  if  the  Colonists  had  taken  a  poll  on  that 
fine  July  morning  in  1775,  not  one  in  five  of  them 
would  have  admitted  that  he  was  going  to  war  to 
secure  Independence,  but  all  would  have  protested 
that  they  would  die  if  need  be  to  recover  their  free 
dom,  the  old  British  freedom,  which  came  down  to 
them  from  Runnymede  and  should  not  be  wrested 
from  them. 

A  British  Tory,  at  the  same  time,  might  have  re 
plied:  "  We  fight,  we  cannot  do  less,  in  order  to  disci 
pline  and  punish  these  wretches  who  assume  to  deny 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  British  Crown  and  to  rebel 
against  the  authority  of  the  British  Parliament." 
A  few  years  before,  an  English  general  had  boasted 
that  with  an  army  of  five  thousand  troops  he  would 
undertake  a  march  from  Canada,  through  the  Col 
onies,  straight  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  And  Colonel 


BOSTON  FREED  67 

George  Washington,  who  had  seen  something  of  the 
quality  of  the  British  regulars,  remarked  that  with 
a  thousand  seasoned  Virginians  he  would  engage  to 
block  the  five  thousand  wherever  he  met  them.  The 
test  was  now  to  be  made. 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  us  is  the  great  extent 
of  the  field  of  war.  From  the  farthest  settlements  in 
the  northeast,  in  what  is  now  Maine,  to  the  border 
villages  in  Georgia  was  about  fifteen  hundred  miles; 
but  mere  distance  did  not  represent  the  difficulty 
of  the  journey.  Between  Boston  and  Baltimore  ran 
a  carriage  road,  not  always  kept  in  good  repair. 
Most  of  the  other  stretches  had  to  be  traversed  on 
horseback.  The  country  along  the  seaboard  was 
generally  well  supplied  with  food,  but  the  supply 
was  nowhere  near  large  enough  to  furnish  regular 
permanent  subsistence  for  an  army.  A  lack  of  muni 
tions  seriously  threatened  the  Colonists'  ability  to 
fight  at  all,  but  the  discovery  of  lead  in  Virginia 
made  good  this  deficiency  until  the  year  1781,  when 
the  lead  mine  was  exhausted. 

More  important  than  material  concerns,  however, 
was  the  diversity  in  origin  and  customs  among  the 
Colonists  themselves.  The  total  population  num 
bered  in  1775  nearly  two  and  one  half  million  souls. 
Of  these,  the  slaves  formed  about  500,000.  The 
three  largest  Colonies,  Virginia,  Massachusetts,  and 


68  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

Pennsylvania  contained  900,000  inhabitants,  of 
which  a  little  more  than  one  half  were  slaves.  Penn 
sylvania,  the  third  Colony,  had  a  total  of  300,000, 
mostly  white,  while  South  Carolina  had  200,000,  of 
whom  only  65,000  were  white.  Connecticut,  on  the 
other  hand,  had  200,000  with  scarcely  any  blacks. 
The  result  was  a  very  mottled  population.  The  New 
Englanders  had  already  begun  to  practise  manu 
facturing,  and  they  continued  to  raise  under  normal 
conditions  sufficient  food  for  their  subsistence. 
South  of  the  Mason  and  Dixon  line,  however,  slave 
labor  prevailed  and  the  three  great  staples  —  to 
bacco,  cotton,  and  rice  —  were  the  principal  crops. 
Where  these  did  not  grow,  the  natives  got  along  as 
best  they  could  on  scanty  common  crops,  and  by 
raising  a  few  sheep  and  hogs.  As  the  war  proceeded, 
it  taught  with  more  and  more  force  the  inherent 
wastefulness  of  slave  labor  in  the  South.  It  was  in 
efficient,  costly,  and  unreliable. 

The  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill  was  at  once  hailed  as  a 
Patriot  victory,  but  the  rejoicing  was  premature,  for 
the  Americans  had  been  forced  to  retreat,  giving  up 
the  position  they  had  bravely  defended.  Neverthe 
less,  the  opinion  prevailed  that  they  had  won  a  real 
victory  by  withstanding  through  many  hours  of  a 
bloody  fight  some  of  the  best  of  the  British  regiments 
in  North  America.  A  fortnight  later,  when  Wash- 


BOSTON  FREED  69 

ington  took  command  of  the  American  army  at 
Cambridge,  he  was  faced  with  the  great  task  of 
organizing  it  and  of  forming  a  plan  of  campaign. 
The  Congress  had  taken  over  the  charge  of  the  army 
at  Boston,  and  the  events  had  so  shaped  themselves 
that  the  first  thing  for  Washington  to  do  was  to 
drive  out  the  British  troops.  To  accomplish  this  he 
planned  to  seal  up  all  the  entrances  into  the  town  by 
land  so  that  food  could  not  be  smuggled  in.  The 
British  had  a  considerable  fleet  in  Boston  Harbor, 
and  they  had  to  rely  upon  it  to  bring  provisions  and 
to  keep  in  touch  with  the  world  outside. 

Washington  had  his  headquarters  at  the  Craigie 
House  in  Cambridge,  some  half  a  mile  from  Harvard 
Square  and  the  College.  He  was  now  forty-three 
years  old,  a  man  of  commanding  presence,  six  feet 
three  inches  tall,  broad-shouldered  but  slender, 
without  any  signs  of  the  stoutness  of  middle  age. 
His  hands  and  feet  were  large.  His  head  was  some 
what  small.  The  blue-gray  eyes,  set  rather  far 
apart,  looked  out  from  heavy  eyebrows  with  an  ex 
pression  of  attentiveness.  The  most  marked  feature 
was  the  nose,  which  was  fairly  large  and  straight 
and  vigorous.  The  mouth  shut  firmly,  as  it  usually 
does  where  decision  is  the  dominant  trait.  The  lips 
were  flat.  His  color  was  pale  but  healthy,  and  rarely 
flushed,  even  under  great  provocation. 


70  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

All  that  had  gone  before  seemed  to  be  strangely 
blended  in  his  appearance.  The  surveyor  lad;  the 
Indian  fighter  and  officer;  the  planter;  the  foxhunter; 
the  Burgess;  you  could  detect  them  all.  But  under 
lying  them  all  was  the  permanent  Washington, 
deferent,  plain  of  speech,  direct,  yet  slow  in  forming 
or  expressing  an  opinion.  Most  men,  after  they  had 
been  with  him  awhile,  felt  a  sense  of  his  majesty 
grow  upon  them,  a  sense  that  he  was  made  of  com 
mon  flesh  like  them,  but  of  something  uncommon 
besides,  something  very  high  and  very  precious. 

Washington  found  that  he  had  sixteen  thousand 
troops  under  his  command  near  Boston.  Of  these 
two  thirds  came  from  Massachusetts,  and  Connec 
ticut  halved  the  rest.  During  July  Congress  added 
three  thousand  men  from  Pennsylvania,  Maryland, 
and  Virginia.  They  lacked  everything.  In  order  to 
give  them  some  uniformity  in  dress,  Washington 
suggested  hunting-shirts,  which  he  said  "would  have 
a  happier  tendency  to  unite  the  men  and  abolish  those 
Provincial  Distinctions  which  lead  to  jealousy  and 
dissatisfaction."  Among  higher  officers,  jealousy, 
which  they  made  no  attempt  to  dissemble  or  to  dis 
guise,  was  common.  Two  of  the  highest  posts  went 
to  Englishmen  who  proved  themselves  not  only 
technically  unfit,  but  suspiciously  near  disloyalty. 
One  of  these  was  Charles  Lee,  who  thought  the 


BOSTON  FREED  71 

major-generalship  to  which  Congress  appointed  him 
beneath  his  notice;  the  other  was  also  an  English 
man,  Horatio  Gates,  Adjutant-General.  A  third, 
Thomas,  when  about  to  retire  in  pique,  received 
from  Washington  the  following  rebuke: 

In  the  usual  contests  of  empire  and  ambition,  the 
conscience  of  a  soldier  has  so  little  share,  that  he  may 
very  properly  insist  upon  his  claims  of  rank,  and  extend 
his  pretensions  even  to  punctilio ;  —  but  in  such  a  cause 
as  this,  when  the  object  is  neither  glory  nor  extent  of 
territory,  but  a  defense  of  all  that  is  dear  and  valuable 
in  private  and  public  life,  surely  every  post  ought  to  be 
deemed  honorable  in  which  a  man  can  serve  his  coun 
try.1 

Besides  the  complaints  which  reached  Washington 
from  all  sides,  he  had  also  to  listen  to  the  advice  of 
military  amateurs.  Some  of  these  had  never  been 
in  a  battle  and  knew  nothing  about  warfare  except 
from  reading,  but  they  were  not  on  this  account  the 
most  taciturn.  Many  urged  strongly  that  an  ex 
pedition  be  sent  against  Canada,  a  design  which 
Washington  opposed.  His  wisdom  was  justified 
when  Richard  Montgomery,  with  about  fifteen 
hundred  men,  took  Montreal  —  November  12,  1775 
—  and  after  waiting  several  weeks  formed  a  junction 
with  Benedict  Arnold  near  Quebec,  which  they  at 
tacked  in  a  blinding  snowstorm,  December  31,  1775. 
1  Ford,  George  Washington,  I,  175. 


72  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

Arnold  had  marched  up  the  Kennebec  River  and 
through  the  Maine  wilderness  with  fifteen  hundred 
men,  which  were  reduced  to  five  hundred  before  they 
came  into  action  with  Montgomery's  much  dwindled 
force.  The  commander  of  Quebec  repulsed  them  and 
sent  them  flying  southward  as  fast  as  the  rigors  of 
the  winter  and  the  difficulties  of  the  wilderness  per 
mitted. 

By  the  end  of  July,  meanwhile,  Washington  had 
brought  something  like  order  into  the  undisciplined 
and  untrained  masses  who  formed  his  army,  but  now 
another  lack  threatened  him :  a  lack  of  gunpowder. 
The  cartridge  boxes  of  his  soldiers  contained  on  an 
average  only  nine  charges  of  ball  and  gunpowder 
apiece,  hardly  enough  to  engage  in  battle  for  more 
than  ten  minutes.  Washington  sent  an  urgent  appeal 
to  every  town,  and  hearing  that  a  ship  at  Bermuda  had 
a  cargo  of  gunpowder,  American  ships  were  des 
patched  thither  to  secure  it.  In  such  straits  did 
the  army  of  the  United  Colonies  go  forth  to  war. 
By  avoiding  battles  and  other  causes  for  using 
munitions,  they  not  only  kept  their  original  sup 
ply,  but  added  to  it  as  fast  as  their  appeals  were 
listened  to.  Washington  kept  his  lines  around  Bos 
ton  firm.  In  the  autumn  General  Gage  was  replaced, 
as  British  Commander-in-Chief,  by  Sir  William 
Howe,  whose  brother  Richard,  Lord  Howe,  became 


BOSTON  FREED  73 

Admiral  of  the  Fleet.  But  the  Howes  knew  no  way 
to  break  the  strangle  hold  of  the  Americans.  How 
Washington  contrived  to  create  the  impression  that 
he  was  master  of  the  situation  is  one  of  the  myster 
ies  of  his  campaigning,  because,  although  he  had 
succeeded  in  making  soldiers  of  the  raw  recruits  and 
in  enforcing  subordination,  they  were  still  a  very 
skittish  body.  They  enlisted  for  short  terms  of  serv 
ice,  and  even  before  their  term  was  completed, 
they  began  to  hanker  to  go  home.  This  caused  not 
only  inconvenience,  but  real  difficulty.  Still,  Wash 
ington  steadily  pushed  on,  and  in  March,  1776,  by  a 
brilliant  manoeuvre  at  Dorchester  Heights,  he  se 
cured  a  position  from  which  his  cannons  could  bom 
bard  every  British  ship  in  Boston  Harbor.  On  the 
1 7th  of  March  all  those  ships,  together  with  the 
garrison  of  eight  thousand,  and  with  two  thousand 
fugitive  Loyalists,  sailed  off  to  Halifax.  Boston  has 
been  free  from  foreign  enemies  from  that  day  to  this. 


CHAPTER  V 
TRENTON  AND  VALLEY  FORGE 

HOWE'S  retreat  from  Boston  freed  Massachu 
setts  and,  indeed,  all  New  England  from  Brit 
ish  troops.  It  also  gave  Washington  the  clue  to  his 
own  next  move.  He  was  a  real  soldier  and  therefore 
his  instinct  told  him  that  his  next  objective  must 
be  the  enemy's  army.  Accordingly  he  prepared  to 
move  his  own  troops  to  New  York.  He  passed 
through  Providence,  Norwich,  and  NewT  London, 
reaching  New  York  on  April  I3th.  Congress  was 
then  sitting  in  Philadelphia  and  he  was  requested  to 
visit  it. 

He  spent  a  fortnight  during  May  in  Philadelphia 
where  he  had  conferences  with  men  of  all  kinds  and 
seems  to  have  been  particularly  impressed,  not  to  say 
shocked,  by  the  lack  of  harmony  which  he  discovered. 
The  members  of  the  Congress,  although  they  were 
ostensibly  devoting  themselves  to  the  common  af 
fairs  of  the  United  Colonies,  were  really  intriguing 
each  for  the  interests  of  his  special  colony  or  section. 
Washington  thought  this  an  ominous  sign,  as  indeed 
it  was,  for  since  the  moment  when  he  joined  the 
Revolution  he  threw  off  all  local  affiliation.  He  did 


TRENTON  AND  VALLEY  FORGE          75 

his  utmost  to  perform  his  duty,  clinging  as  long  as 
he  could  to  the  hope  that  there  would  be  no  final 
break  with  England.  Throughout  the  winter,  how 
ever,  from  almost  every  part  of  the  country  the  de 
mands  of  the  Colonists  for  independence  became 
louder  and  more  urgent  and  these  he  heard  repeated 
and  discussed  during  his  visit  to  the  Congress.  On 
May  3  ist  he  wrote  his  brother  John  Augustine 
Washington : 

Things  have  come  to  that  pass  now,  as  to  convince  us, 
that  we  have  nothing  more  to  expect  from  the  justice  of 
Great  Britain;  also,  that  she  is  capable  of  the  most  de 
lusive  acts;  for  I  am  satisfied,  that  no  commissioners 
ever  were  designed,  except  Hessians  and  other  foreigners ; 
and  that  the  idea  was  only  to  deceive  and  throw  us  off 
our  guard.  The  first  has  been  too  effectually  accom 
plished,  as  many  members  of  Congress,  in  short,  the 
representation  of  whole  provinces,  are  still  feeding 
themselves  upon  the  dainty  food  of  reconciliation;  and 
though  they  will  not  allow,  that  the  expectation  of  it  has 
any  influence  upon  their  judgment,  (with  respect  to 
their  preparations  for  defence,)  it  is  but  too  obvious, 
that  it  has  an  operation  upon  every  part  of  their  con 
duct,  and  is  a  clog  to  their  proceedings.  It  is  not  in  the 
nature  of  things  to  be  otherwise;  for  no  man,  that  en 
tertains  a  hope  of  seeing  this  dispute  speedily  and  equi 
tably  adjusted  by  commissioners,  will  go  to  the  same 
expense  and  run  the  same  hazards  to  prepare  for  the 
worst  event,  as  he  who  believes  that  he  must  conquer,  or 
submit  to  unconditional  terms,  and  its  concomitants, 
such  as  confiscation,  hanging,  etc.  etc.1 

1  Ford,  iv,  106. 


76  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

The  Hessians  to  whom  Washington  alludes  were 
German  mercenaries  hired  by  the  King  of  England 
from  two  or  three  of  the  princelings  of  Germany. 
These  Hessians  turned  a  dishonest  penny  by  fight 
ing  in  behalf  of  a  cause  in  which  they  took  no  im 
mediate  interest  or  even  knew  what  it  was  about. 
During  the  course  of  the  Revolution  there  were 
thirty  thousand  Hessians  in  the  British  armies  in 
America,  and,  as  their  owners,  the  German  prince 
lings,  received  £5  apiece  for  them  it  was  a  profitable 
arrangement  for  those  phlegmatic,  corpulent,  and 
braggart  personages.  The  Americans  complained 
that  the  Hessians  were  brutal  and  tricky  fighters; 
but  in  reality  they  merely  carried  out  the  ideals  of 
their  German  Fatherland  which  remained  behind 
the  rest  of  Europe  in  its  ideals  of  what  was  fitting  in 
war.  Being  uncivilized,  they  could  not  be  expected 
to  follow  the  practice  of  civilized  warfare. 

When  Washington  returned  to  his  headquarters 
in  New  York,  he  left  the  Congress  in  Philadelphia 
simmering  over  the  question  of  Independence.  Al 
most  simultaneously  with  Washington's  return 
came  the  British  fleet  under  Howe,  which  passed 
Sandy  Hook  and  sailed  up  New  York  Harbor.  He 
brought  an  army  of  twenty-five  thousand  men. 
Washington's  force  was  nominally  nineteen  thou 
sand  men,  but  it  was  reduced  to  not  more  than  ten 


TRENTON  AND  VALLEY  FORGE          77 

thousand  by  the  detachment  of  several  thousand  to 
guard  Boston  and  of  several  thousand  more  to  take 
part  in  the  struggle  in  Canada,  besides  thirty-six  hun 
dred  sick.  The  Colonists  clung  as  if  by  obsession 
to  their  project  of  capturing  Quebec.  The  death 
of  Montgomery  and  the  discomfiture  of  Benedict 
Arnold,  which  really  gave  a  quietus  to  the  success  of 
the  expedition,  did  not  suffice  to  crush  it.  Only  too 
evident  was  it  that  Quebec  could  be  taken.  Canada 
would  fall  permanently  into  American  control,  and 
cease  to  be  a  constant  menace  and  the  recruiting 
ground  for  new  expeditions  against  the  central 
Colonies. 

August  was  drawing  to  a  close  when  the  two 
armies  were  in  a  position  to  begin  fighting.  The 
British,  who  had  originally  camped  upon  Staten 
Island  where  Nature  provided  them  with  a  shelter 
from  attack,  had  now  moved  across  the  bay  to  Long 
Island.  There  General  Sullivan,  having  lost  eleven 
or  twelve  hundred  men,  was  caught  between  two 
fires  and  compelled  to  surrender  with  the  two  thou 
sand  or  more  of  his  army  which  remained  after  the 
attack  of  the  British.  Washington  watched  the  dis 
aster  from  Brooklyn,  but  was  unable  to  detach  any 
regiments  to  bring  aid  to  Sullivan,  as  it  now  became 
clear  to  him  that  his  whole  army  on  Long  Island 
might  easily  be  cut  off.  He  decided  to  retreat  from 


78  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

the  island.  This  he  did  on  August  29th,  having  com 
mandeered  every  boat  that  he  could  find.  He  fer 
ried  his  entire  force  across  to  the  New  York  side 
with  such  secrecy  and  silence  that  the  British  did  not 
notice  that  they  were  gone.  A  heavy  fog,  which  set 
tled  over  the  water  during  the  night,  greatly  aided 
the  adventure.  The  result  of  the  Battle  of  Long 
Island  gave  the  British  great  exultation  and  cor 
respondingly  depressed  the  Americans.  On  the 
preceding  fourth  of  July  they  had  declared  their 
Independence;  they  were  no  longer  Colonies  but 
independent  States  bound  together  by  a  common 
interest.  They  felt  all  the  more  keenly  that  in  this 
first  battle  after  their  Independence  they  should  be 
so  ignominiously  defeated.  They  might  have  taken 
much  comfort  in  the  thought  that  had  Howe  sur 
prised  them  on  their  midnight  retreat  across  the 
river,  he  might  have  captured  most  of  the  American 
army  and  probably  have  ended  the  war.  Washing 
ton's  disaster  sprang  not  from  his  incompetence,  but 
from  his  inadequate  resources.  The  British  out 
numbered  him  more  than  two  to  one  and  they  had 
control  of  the  water;  an  advantage  which  he  could 
not  offset.  One  important  fact  should  not  be  for 
gotten:  New  York,  both  City  and  State,  had  been 
notoriously  Loyalist  —  that  is,  pro-British  —  ever 
since  the  troubles  between  the  Colonists  and  the 


TRENTON  AND  VALLEY  FORGE          79 

British  grew  angry.  Governor  Tryon,  the  Governor 
of  the  State,  made  no  secret  of  his  British  prefer 
ences;  indeed,  they  were  not  preferences  at  all,  but 
downright  British  acts. 

Having  won  the  Battle  of  Long  Island,  Lord 
Howe  thought  the  time  favorable  for  acting  in  his 
capacity  as  a  peacemaker,  because  he  had  come  over 
with  authority  to  negotiate  a  peaceful  settlement 
of  the  Colonists'  quarrel.  He  appealed,  therefore,  to 
the  Congress  of  Philadelphia,  which  appointed  a 
committee  of  three  —  Benjamin  Franklin,  John 
Adams,  and  Edward  Rutledge  to  confer  with  Lord 
Howe.  The  conference,  which  exhibited  the  shrewd 
quality  of  John  Adams  and  of  Franklin,  the  polite 
ness  of  Rutledge,  and  the  studied  urbanity  of  Lord 
Howe,  simply  showed  that  there  was  no  common 
ground  on  which  they  could  come  to  an  agreement. 
The  American  Commissioners  returned  to  Philadel 
phia  and  Lord  Howe  to  New  York  City  and  there 
were  no  further  attempts  at  peacemaking. 

Having  brought  his  men  to  New  York,  Washing 
ton  may  well  have  debated  what  to  do  next.  The 
general  opinion  seemed  to  be  that  New  York  must 
be  defended  at  all  costs.  Whether  Washington  ap 
proved  of  this  plan,  I  find  it  hard  to  say.  Perhaps  he 
felt  that  if  the  American  army  could  hold  its  own  on 
Manhattan  for  several  weeks,  it  would  be  put  into 


8o  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

better  discipline  and  prepared  either  to  risk  a  battle 
with  the  British,  or  to  retreat  across  the  Hudson 
toward  New  Jersey.  He  decided  that  for  the  moment 
at  least  he  would  station  his  army  on  the  heights 
of  Harlem.  From  the  house  of  Colonel  Morris, 
where  he  made  his  headquarters,  he  wrote  on  Sep 
tember  4,  1776,  to  the  President  of  the  Congress: 
"We  are  now,  as  it  were,  upon  the  eve  of  another 
dissolution  of  our  army."  The  term  of  service  of 
most  of  the  soldiers  under  Washington  would  ex 
pire  at  the  end  of  the  year,  and  he  devoted  the  greater 
part  of  the  letter  to  showing  up  the  evils  of  the  mili 
tary  system  existing  in  the  American  army. 

A  soldier  [he  said]  reasoned  with  upon  the  goodness 
of  the  cause  he  is  engaged  in,  and  the  inestimable  rights 
he  is  contending  for,  hears  you  with  patience,  and  ac 
knowledges  the  truth  of  your  observations,  but  adds 
that  it  is  of  no  more  importance  to  him  than  to  others. 
The  officer  makes  you  the  same  reply,  with  this  further 
remark,  that  his  pay  will  not  support  him  and  he  can 
not  ruin  himself  and  family  to  serve  his  country,  when 
every  member  of  the  community  is  equally  interested, 
and  benefited  by  his  labors.  The  few,  therefore,  who 
act  upon  principles  of  disinterestedness,  comparatively 
speaking,  are  no  more  than  a  drop  in  the  ocean. 

It  becomes  evident  to  me  then,  that,  as  this  contest  is 
not  likely  to  be  the  work  of  a  day,  as  the  war  must  be 
carried  on  systematically,  and  to  do  it  you  must  have 
good  officers,  there  are  in  my  judgment  no  other  pos 
sible  means  to  obtain  them  but  by  establishing  your 
army  upon  a  permanent  footing  and  giving  your  officers 


TRENTON  AND  VALLEY  FORGE          81 

good  pay.  This  will  induce  gentlemen  and  men  of  char 
acter  to  engage;  and,  till  the  bulk  of  your  officers  is  com 
posed  of  such  persons  as  are  actuated  by  principles  of 
honor  and  a  spirit  of  enterprise,  you  have  little  to  ex 
pect  from  them.1 

Washington  proceeds  to  argue  that  the  soldiers 
ought  not  to  be  engaged  for  a  shorter  time  than  the 
duration  of  the  war,  that  they  ought  to  have  better 
pay  and  the  offer  of  a  hundred  or  a  hundred  and 
fifty  acres  of  land.  Officers'  pay  should  be  increased 
in  proportion.  "Why  a  captain  in  the  Continental 
service  should  receive  no  more  than  five  shillings  cur 
rency  per  day  for  performing  the  same  duties  that 
an  officer  of  the  same  rank  in  the  British  service 
receives  ten  shillings  for,  I  never  could  conceive." 
He  further  speaks  strongly  against  the  employment 
of  militia  —  "to  place  any  dependence  upon  [it] 
is  assuredly  resting  upon  a  broken  staff." 

Washington  wrote  thus  frankly  to  the  Congress 
which  seems  to  have  read  his  doleful  reports  without 
really  being  stimulated,  as  it  ought  to  have  been,  by 
a  determination  to  remove  their  causes.  Probably 
the  delegates  came  to  regard  the  jeremiads  as  a 
matter  of  course  and  assumed  that  Washington 
would  pull  through  somehow.  Very  remarkable  is 
it  that  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  any  army  in  such 
a  struggle  should  have  expressed  himself  as  he  did, 

1  Ford,  iv,  440. 


82  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

bluntly,  in  regard  to  its  glaring  imperfections.  Do 
ing  this,  however,  he  managed  to  hold  the  loyalty 
and  spirit  of  his  men.  In  the  American  Civil  War, 
McClellan  contrived  to  infatuate  his  troops  with 
the  belief  that  his  plans  were  perfect,  and  that  only 
the  annoying  fact  that  the  Confederate  generals 
planned  better  caused  him  to  be  defeated;  and  yet 
to  his  obsessed  soldiers  defeat  under  McClellan  was 
more  glorious  than  victory  under  Lee  or  Stonewall 
Jackson.  I  take  it  that  Washington's  frankness 
simply  reflected  his  passion  for  veracity,  which  was 
the  cornerstone  of  his  character.  The  strangest  fact 
of  all  was  that  it  did  not  lessen  his  popularity  or 
discourage  his  troops. 

To  his  intimates  Washington  wrote  with  even 
more  unreserve.  Thus  he  says  to  Lund  Washington 
(30th  September)  : 

In  short,  such  is  my  situation  that  if  I  were  to  wish 
the  bitterest  curse  to  an  enemy  on  this  side  of  the  grave, 
I  should  put  him  in  my  stead  with  my  feelings;  and  yet 
I  do  not  know  what  plan  of  conduct  to  pursue.  I  see 
the  impossibility  of  serving  with  reputation,  or  doing 
any  essential  service  to  the  cause  by  continuing  in  com 
mand,  and  yet  I  am  told  that  if  I  quit  the  command,  in 
evitable  ruin  will  follow  from  the  distraction  that  will 
ensue.  In  confidence  I  tell  you  that  I  never  was  in  such 
an  unhappy,  divided  state  since  I  was  born.  To  lose  all 
comfort  and  happiness  on  the  one  hand,  whilst  I  am 
fully  persuaded  that  under  such  a  system  of  manage- 


TRENTON  AND  VALLEY  FORGE          83 

ment  as  has  been  adopted,  I  cannot  have  the  least 
chance  for  reputation,  nor  those  allowances  made  which 
the  nature  of  the  case  requires;  and  to  be  told,  on  the 
other,  that  if  I  leave  the  service  all  will  be  lost,  is,  at  the 
same  time  that  I  am  bereft  of  every  peaceful  moment, 
distressing  to  a  degree.  But  I  will  be  done  with  the  sub 
ject,  with  the  precaution  to  you  that  it  is  not  a  fit  one  to 
be  publicly  known  or  discussed.  If  I  fall,  it  may  not  be 
amiss  that  these  circumstances  be  known,  and  declara 
tion  made  in  credit  to  the  justice  of  my  character.  And 
if  the  men  will  stand  by  me  (which  by  the  by  I  despair 
of),  I  am  resolved  not  to  be  forced  from  this  ground 
while  I  have  life;  and  a  few  days  will  determine  the 
point,  if  the  enemy  should  not  change  their  place  of 
operations;  for  they  certainly  will  not  —  I  am  sure  they 
ought  not  —  to  waste  the  season  that  is  now  fast  ad 
vancing,  and  must  be  precious  to  them.1 

The  British  troops  almost  succeeded  in  surround 
ing  Washington's  force  north  of  Harlem.  Washing 
ton  retreated  to  White  Plains,  where,  on  October 
28th,  the  British,  after  a  severe  loss,  took  an  outpost 
and  won  what  is  called  the  "  Battle  of  White  Plains." 
Henceforward  Washington's  movements  resembled 
too  painfully  those  of  the  proverbial  toad  under  the 
harrow;  and  yet  in  spite  of  Lord  Howe's  efforts  to 
crush  him,  he  succeeded  in  escaping  into  New  Jersey 
with  a  small  remnant  —  some  six  thousand  men  — 
of  his  original  army.  The  year  1776  thus  closed  in 
disaster  which  seemed  to  be  irremediable.  It  showed 
that  the  British,  having  awakened  to  the  magnitude 

1  Ford,  iv,  458. 


84  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

of  their  task,  were  able  to  cope  with  it.  Having  a 
comparatively  unlimited  sea-power,  they  needed 
only  to  embark  their  regiments,  with  the  neces 
sary  provisions  and  ammunition,  on  their  ships  and 
send  them  across  the  Atlantic,  where  they  were  more 
than  a  match  for  the  nondescript,  undisciplined, 
ill-equipped,  and  often  badly  nourished  Americans. 
The  fact  that  at  the  highest  reckoning  hardly  a  half 
of  the  American  people  were  actively  in  favor  of 
Independence,  is  too  often  forgotten.  But  from  this 
fact  there  followed  much  lukewarmness  and  inertia 
in  certain  sections.  Many  persons  had  too  little 
imagination  or  were  too  sordidly  bound  by  their 
daily  ties  to  care.  As  one  planter  put  it:  "My  busi 
ness  is  to  raise  tobacco,  the  rest  does  n't  concern 


me." 


Over  the  generally  level  plains  of  New  Jersey, 
George  Washington  pushed  the  remnant  of  the  army 
that  remained  to  him.  He  had  now  hardly  five  thou 
sand  men,  but  they  were  the  best,  most  seasoned, 
and  in  many  respects  the  hardiest  fighters.  In  ad 
dition  to  the  usual  responsibility  of  warfare,  of  feed 
ing  his  troops,  finding  quarters  for  them,  and  of 
directing  the  line  of  march,  he  had  to  cope  with  whole 
sale  desertions  and  to  make  desperate  efforts  to 
raise  money  and  to  persuade  some  of  those  troops, 
whose  term  was  expiring,  to  stay  on.  His  general 


TRENTON  AND  VALLEY  FORGE          85 

plan  now  was  to  come  near  enough  to  the  British 
centre  and  to  watch  its  movements.  The  British  had 
fully  twenty-five  thousand  men  who  could  be  cen 
tred  at  a  given  point.  This  centre  was  now  Trenton, 
and  the  objective  of  the  British  was  so  plainly 
Philadelphia  that  the  Continental  Congress,  after 
voting  to  remain  in  permanence  there,  fled  as  quietly 
as  possible  to  Baltimore.  On  December  i8th  Wash 
ington  wrote  from  the  camp  near  the  Falls  of  Tren 
ton  to  John  Augustine  Washington: 

If  every  nerve  is  not  strained  to  recruit  the  new  army 
with  all  possible  expedition,  I  think  the  game  is  pretty 
near  up,  owing,  in  great  measure,  to  the  insidious  acts 
of  the  Enemy,  and  disaffection  of  the  Colonies  before 
mentioned,  but  principally  to  the  accursed  policy  of 
short  enlistments,  and  placing  too  great  a  dependence 
on  the  militia,  the  evil  consequences  of  which  were  fore 
told  fifteen  months  ago,  with  a  spirit  almost  Prophetic. 
.  .  .  You  can  form  no  idea  of  the  perplexity  of  my  situ 
ation.  No  man,  I  believe,  ever  had  a  greater  choice  of 
difficulties,  and  less  means  to  extricate  himself  from 
them.  However,  under  a  full  persuasion  of  the  justice 
of  our  cause,  I  cannot  entertain  an  idea  that  it  will 
finally  sink,  though  it  may  remain  for  some  time  under 
a  cloud.1 

Washington  stood  with  his  forlorn  little  army  on 
the  west  bank  of  the  Delaware  above  Trenton.  He 
had  information  that  the  British  had  stretched  their 
line  very  far  and  thin  to  the  east  of  the  town.  Sep- 

1  Ford,  v,  ill. 


86  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

arating  his  forces  into  three  bodies,  he  commanded 
one  of  these  himself,  and  during  the  night  of  Christ 
mas  he  crossed  the  river  in  boats.  The  night  was 
stormy  and  the  crossing  was  much  interrupted  by 
floating  cakes  of  ice;  in  spite  of  which  he  landed  his 
troops  safely  on  the  eastern  shore.  They  had  to 
march  nine  miles  before  they  reached  Trenton, 
taking  Colonel  Rail  and  his  garrison  of  Hessians  by 
surprise.  More  than  a  thousand  surrendered  and 
were  quickly  carried  back  over  the  river  into  captiv 
ity. 

The  prestige  of  the  Battle  of  Trenton  was  enor 
mous.  For  the  first  time  in  six  months  Washington 
had  beaten  the  superior  forces  of  the  British  and  beat 
en  them  in  a  fortified  town  of  their  own  choosing. 
The  result  of  the  victory  was  not  simply  military; 
it  quickly  penetrated  the  population  of  New  Jersey 
which  had  been  exasperatingly  Loyalist,  had  sold 
the  British  provisions,  and  abetted  their  intrigues. 
Now  the  New  Jersey  people  suddenly  bethought 
them  that  they  might  have  chosen  the  wrong  side 
after  all.  This  feeling  was  deepened  in  them  a  week 
later  when,  at  Princeton,  Washington  suddenly  fell 
upon  and  routed  several  British  regiments.  By  this 
success  he  cleared  the  upper  parts  of  New  Jersey  of 
British  troops,  who  were  shut  once  more  within  the 
limits  of  New  York  City  and  Long  Island. 


Copyright  by  the  Detroit  Publishing  Co. 

WASHINGTON  AT  THE  BATTLE  OF  TRENTON 
By  Colonel  John  Trumbull 


TRENTON  AND  VALLEY  FORGE          87 

In  January,  1777,  no  man  could  say  that  the 
turning-point  in  the  American  Revolution  had  been 
passed.  There  were  still  to  come  long  months, 
and  years  even,  of  doubt  and  disillusion  and 
suffering;  the  agony  of  Valley  Forge;  the  igno 
miny  of  betrayal;  and  the  slowly  gnawing  pain  of 
hope  deferred.  But  the  fact,  if  men  could  have  but 
seen  it,  was  clear  —  Trenton  and  Princeton  were 
prophetic  of  the  end.  And  what  was  even  clearer  was 
the  supreme  importance  of  George  Washington. 
Had  he  been  cut  off  after  Princeton  or  had  he  been 
forced  to  retire  through  accident,  the  Revolution 
would  have  slackened,  lost  head  and  direction,  and 
spent  itself  among  thinly  parcelled  rivulets  without 
strength  to  reach  the  sea.  Washington  was  a  Neces 
sary  Man.  Without  him  the  struggle  would  not  then 
have  continued.  Sooner  or  later  America  would 
have  broken  free  from  England,  but  he  was  indis 
pensable  to  the  liberty  and  independence  of  the 
Colonies  then.  This  thought  brooded  over  him  at  all 
times,  not  to  make  him  boastful  or  imperious,  but 
to  impress  him  with  a  deeper  awe,  and  to  impress 
also  his  men  with  the  supreme  importance  of  his  life 
to  them  all.  They  grew  restive  when,  at  Princeton, 
forgetful  of  self,  he  faced  a  volley  of  muskets  only 
thirty  feet  away.  One  of  his  officers  wrote  after  the 
Trenton  campaign: 


88  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

Our  army  love  their  General  very  much,  but  they 
have  one  thing  against  him,  which  is  the  little  care  he 
takes  of  himself  in  any  action.  His  personal  bravery,  and 
the  desire  he  has  of  animating  his  troops  by  example, 
makes  him  fearless  of  danger.  This  occasions  us  much 
uneasiness.  But  Heaven,  which  has  hitherto  been  his 
shield,  I  hope  will  still  continue  to  guard  so  valuable  a 
life.1 

Robert  Morris,  who  had  already  achieved  a  very 
important  position  among  the  Patriots  of  New  York, 
wrote  to  Washington: 

Heaven,  no  doubt  for  the  noblest  purposes,  has  blessed 
you  with  a  firmness  of  mind,  steadiness  of  countenance, 
and  patience  in  sufferings,  that  give  you  infinite  advan 
tages  over  other  men.  This  being  the  case,  you  are  not 
to  depend  on  other  people's  exertions  being  equal  to 
your  own.  One  mind  feeds  and  thrives  on  misfortunes 
by  finding  resources  to  get  the  better  of  them;  another 
sinks  under  their  weight,  thinking  it  impossible  to  re 
sist;  and,  as  the  latter  description  probably  includes  the 
majority  of  mankind,  we  must  be  cautious  of  alarming 
them. 

Washington  doubtless  thanked  Morris  for  his 
kind  advice  about  issuing  reports  which  had  some 
streaks  of  the  rainbow  and  less  truth  in  them.  He 
did  not  easily  give  up  his  preference  for  truth. 

Common  prudence  [he  said]  dictates  the  necessity  of 
duly  attending  to  the  circumstances  of  both  armies,  be 
fore  the  style  of  conquerors  is  assumed  by  either;  and 

1  Hapgood,  171. 


TRENTON  AND  VALLEY  FORGE          89 

I  am  sorry  to  add,  that  this  does  not  appear  to  be  the 
case  with  us;  nor  is  it  in  my  power  to  make  Congress 
fully  sensible  of  the  real  situation  of  our  affairs,  and  that 
it  is  with  difficulty  (if  I  may  use  the  expression)  that  I 
can,  by  every  means  in  my  power,  keep  the  life  and  soul 
of  this  army  together.  In  a  word,  when  they  are  at  a 
distance,  they  think  it  is  but  to  say,  Presto  begone,  and 
everything  is  done.  They  seem  not  to  have  any  con 
ception  of  the  difficulty  and  perplexity  attending  those 
who  are  to  execute. 

After  the  Battle  of  Princeton,  Washington  drew 
his  men  off  to  the  Heights  of  Morristown  where  he 
established  his  winter  quarters.  The  British  had 
gone  still  farther  toward  New  York  City.  Both  sides 
seemed  content  to  enjoy  a  comparative  truce  until 
spring  should  come  with  better  weather;  but  true  to 
his  characteristic  of  being  always  preparing  some 
thing,  Howe  had  several  projects  in  view,  any  one 
of  which  might  lead  to  important  activity.  If  ever 
a  war  was  fought  at  long  range,  that  war  was  the 
American  Revolution.  Howe  received  his  orders 
from  the  War  Office  in  London.  Every  move  was 
laid  down;  no  allowance  was  made  for  the  change 
which  unforeseeable  contingencies  might  render  nec 
essary;  the  young  Under-Secretaries  who  carefully 
drew  up  the  instructions  in  London  knew  little  or 
nothing  about  the  American  field  of  operations  and 
simply  relied  upon  the  fact  that  their  callipers 
showed  that  it  was  so  many  miles  between  Point  X 


90  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

and  Point  Y  and  that  the  distance  should  ordinarily 
be  covered  in  so  many  hours. 

With  Washington  himself  the  case  was  hardly 
better.  There  were  few  motions  that  he  could  make 
of  his  own  free  will.  He  had  to  get  authority  from 
the  Continental  Congress  at  Philadelphia.  The 
Congress  was  not  made  up  of  military  experts  and 
in  many  cases  it  knew  nothing  about  the  questions 
he  asked.  The  members  of  the  Congress  were  talkers, 
not  doers,  and  they  sometimes  lost  themselves  in 
endless  debate  and  sometimes  they  seemed  quite  to 
forget  the  questions  Washington  put  to  them.  We 
find  him  writing  in  December  to  beg  them  to  reply 
to  the  urgent  question  which  he  had  first  asked  in 
the  preceding  October.  He  was  scrupulous  not  to 
take  any  step  which  might  seem  dictatorial.  The 
Congress  and  the  people  of  the  country  dreaded 
military  despotism.  That  dread  made  them  prefer 
the  evil  system  of  militia  and  the  short-term  enlist 
ments  to  a  properly  organized  standing  army.  To 
their  fearful  imagination  the  standing  army  would 
very  quickly  be  followed  by  the  man  on  horseback 
and  by  hopeless  despotism. 

The  Olympians  in  London  who  controlled  the 
larger  issues  of  war  and  peace  whispered  to  the  young 
gentlemen  in  the  War  Office  to  draw  up  plans  for 
the  invasion,  during  the  summer  of  1777,  of  the 


TRENTON  AND  VALLEY  FORGE          91 

lower  Hudson  by  British  troops  from  Canada.  Gen 
eral  Burgoyne  should  march  down  and  take  Ticon- 
deroga  and  then  proceed  to  Albany.  There  he 
could  meet  a  smaller  force  under  Colonel  St.  Leger 
coming  from  Oswego  and  following  the  Mohawk 
River.  A  third  army  under  Sir  William  Howe  could 
ascend  the  Hudson  and  meet  Burgoyne  and  St. 
Leger  at  the  general  rendezvous  —  Albany.  It  was 
a  brave  plan,  and  when  Burgoyne  started  with  his 
force  of  eight  thousand  men  high  hopes  flushed  the 
British  hearts.  These  hopes  seemed  to  be  confirmed 
when  a  month  later  Burgoyne  took  Ticonderoga. 
The  Americans  attributed  great  importance  to  this 
place,  an  importance  which  might  have  been  justi 
fied  at  an  earlier  time,  but  which  was  now  really 
passed,  and  it  proved  of  little  value  to  Burgoyne. 
Pursuing  his  march  southward,  he  found  himself 
entangled  in  the  forest  and  he  failed  to  meet  boats 
which  were  to  ferry  him  over  the  streams. 

The  military  operations  during  the  summer  and 
autumn  of  1777  might  well  cause  the  Americans  to 
exult.  The  British  plan  of  sending  three  armies  to 
clear  out  the  forces  which  guarded  or  blocked  the 
road  from  Canada  to  the  lower  Hudson  burst  like  a 
bubble.  The  chief  contingent  of  8000  men,  under 
General  Burgoyne,  seems  to  have  strayed  from  its 
route  and  to  have  been  in  need  of  food.  Hearing  that 


92  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

there  were  supplies  at  Bennington,  Burgoyne  turned 
aside  to  that  place.  He  little  suspected  the  mettle  of 
John  Stark  and  of  his  Green  Mountain  volunteers. 
Their  quality  was  well  represented  by  Stark's  ad 
dress  to  his  men:  "They  are  ours  to-night,  or  Molly 
Stark  is  a  widow."  He  did  not  boast.  By  nightfall 
he  had  captured  all  of  Burgoyne's  men  who  were 
alive  (August  16,  1777). 

Only  one  reverse  marred  the  victories  of  the  sum 
mer.  This  was  at  Oriskany  in  August,  1777.  An 
American  force  of  400  or  500  men  fell  into  an  am 
bush,  and  its  leader,  General  Herkimer,  though 
mortally  wounded,  refused  to  retire,  but  continued 
to  give  directions  to  the  end.  Oriskany  was  reputed 
to  be  the  most  atrocious  fight  of  the  Revolution. 
Joseph  Brant,  the  Mohawk  chief,  led  the  Indians, 
who  were  allies  of  the  English. 

In  spite  of  this,  Burgoyne  seemed  to  lose  resolu 
tion,  uncertain  whither  to  turn.  He  instinctively 
groped  for  a  way  that  would  take  him  down  the 
Hudson  and  bring  him  to  Albany,  where  he  was  to 
meet  British  reinforcements.  But  he  missed  his 
bearings  and  found  himself  near  Saratoga.  Here 
General  Gates  confronted  him  with  an  army  larger 
than  his  own  in  regulars.  On  October  7th  they 
fought  a  battle,  which  the  British  technically 
claimed  as  a  victory,  as  they  were  not  driven  from 


TRENTON  AND  VALLEY  FORGE          93 

their  position,  but  it  left  them  virtually  hemmed  in 
without  a  line  of  escape.  Burgoyne  waited  several 
days  irresolute.  He  hoped  that  something  favorable 
to  him  might  turn  up.  He  had  a  lurking  hope  that 
General  Clinton  was  near  by,  coming  to  his  rescue. 
He  wavered,  gallant  though  he  was,  and  would  not 
give  the  final  order  of  desperation  —  to  cut  their 
way  through  the  enemy  lines.  Instead  of  that  he 
sought  a  truce  with  Gates,  and  signed  the  Conven 
tion  of  Saratoga  (October  I7th),  by  which  he  sur 
rendered  his  army  wTith  the  honors  of  war,  and  it  was 
stipulated  that  they  should  be  sent  to  England  by 
English  ships  and  paroled  against  taking  any  further 
part  in  the  war. 

The  victory  of  Saratoga  had  much  effect  on  Amer 
ica;  it  reverberated  through  Europe.  Only  the  pe 
culiar  nature  of  the  fighting  in  America  prevented  it 
from  being  decisive.  Washington  himself  had  never 
dared  to  risk  a  battle  which,  if  he  were  defeated  in 
it,  would  render  it  impossible  for  him  to  continue 
the  war.  The  British,  on  the  other  hand,  spread 
over  much  ground,  and  the  destruction  of  one  of  their 
armies  would  not  necessarily  involve  the  loss  of  all. 
So  it  was  now;  Burgoyne's  surrender  did  little  to  re 
lieve  the  pressure  on  Washington's  troops  on  the 
Hudson,  but  it  had  a  vital  effect  across  the  sea. 

Since  the  first  year  of  the  war  the  Americans  had 


94  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

hoped  to  secure  a  formal  alliance  with  France  against 
England,  and  among  the  French  who  favored  this 
scheme  there  were  several  persons  of  importance. 
Reasons  were  easily  found  to  justify  such  an  alliance. 
The  Treaty  of  Paris  in  1763  had  dispossessed  France 
of  her  colonies  in  America  and  had  left  her  inferior 
to  England  in  other  parts  of  the  world.  Here  was 
her  chance  to  take  revenge.  The  new  King,  Louis 
XVI,  had  for  Foreign  Minister  Count  de  Vergennes, 
a  diplomat  of  some  experience,  who  warmly  urged 
supporting  the  cause  of  the  American  Colonists.  He 
had  for  accomplice  Beaumarchais,  a  nimble-witted 
playwright  and  seductive  man  of  the  world  who 
talked  very  persuasively  to  the  young  King  and  many 
others. 

The  Americans  on  their  side  had  not  been  inactive, 
and  early  in  1776  Silas  Deane,  a  member  of  Congress 
from  Connecticut,  was  sent  over  to  Paris  with  the 
mission  to  do  his  utmost  to  cement  the  friendship 
between  the  American  Colonies  and  France.  Deane 
worked  to  such  good  purpose  that  by  October, 
1776,  he  had  sent  clothing  for  twenty  thousand  men, 
muskets  for  thirty  thousand  and  large  quantities  of 
ammunition.  A  fictitious  French  house,  which  went 
by  the  name  of  Hortalaz  et  Cie,  acted  as  agent  and 
carried  on  the  necessary  business  from  Paris.  By 
this  time  military  adventurers  in  large  numbers  be- 


TRENTON  AND  VALLEY  FORGE          95 

gan  to  flock  to  America  to  offer  their  swords  to  the 
rebellious  Colonials.  Among  them  were  a  few  —  de 
Kalb,  Pulaski,  Steuben,  and  Kosciuszko  —  who  did 
good  service  for  the  struggling  young  rebels,  but  most 
of  them  were  worthless  adventurers  and  marplots. 

Almost  any  American  in  Paris  felt  himself  author 
ized  to  give  a  letter  of  introduction  to  any  French 
man  or  other  European  who  wished  to  try  his  for 
tunes  in  America.  One  of  the  notorious  cases  was 
that  of  a  French  officer  named  Ducoudray,  who 
brought  a  letter  from  Deane  purporting  to  be  an 
agreement  that  Ducoudray  should  command  the 
artillery  of  the  Continental  army  with  the  rank  and 
pay  of  a  major-general.  Washington  would  take  no 
responsibility  for  this  appointment,  which  would 
have  displaced  General  Knox,  a  hardy  veteran,  an 
indefectible  patriot,  and  Washington's  trusted  friend. 
When  the  matter  was  taken  up  by  the  Congress, 
the  demand  was  quickly  disallowed.  The  absurdity 
of  allowing  Silas  Deane  or  any  other  American  in 
Paris,  no  matter  how  meritorious  his  own  services 
might  be,  to  assign  to  foreigners  commissions  of  high 
rank  in  the  American  army  was  too  obvious  to  be 
debated. 

To  illustrate  the  character  of  Washington's  mis 
cellaneous  labors  in  addition  to  his  usual  household 
care  of  the  force  under  him,  I  borrow  a  few  items 


96  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

from  his  correspondence.  I  borrow  at  random,  the 
time  being  October,  1777,  when  the  Commander- 
in-Chief  is  moving  from  place  to  place  in  northern 
New  Jersey,  watching  the  enemy  and  avoiding  an 
engagement.  A  letter  comes  from  Richard  Henry 
Lee,  evidently  intended  to  sound  Washington,  in 
regard  to  the  appointment  of  General  Conway  to  a 
high  command  in  the  American  army.  Washington 
replies  with  corroding  veracity. 

[Matuchin  Hill,  17  October,  1777.]  If  there  is  any 
truth  in  the  report  that  Congress  hath  appointed  .  .  . 
Brigadier  Conway  a  Major-general  in  this  army,  it  will 
be  as  unfortunate  a  measure  as  ever  was  adopted.  I  may 
add,  (and  I  think  with  truth)  that  it  will  give  a  fatal 
blow  to  the  existence  of  the  army.  Upon  so  interesting 
a  subject,  I  must  speak  plain.  The  duty  I  owe  my  coun 
try,  the  ardent  desire  I  have  to  promote  its  true  interests, 
and  justice  to  individuals,  requires  this  of  me.  General 
Conway's  merit,  then,  as  an  officer,  and  his  importance 
in  this  army,  exists  more  in  his  imagination,  than  in 
reality.  For  it  is  a  maxim  with  him,  to  leave  no  service 
of  his  own  untold,  nor  to  want  anything,  which  is  to  be 
obtained  by  importunity.1 

It  does  not  appear  that  Lee  fished  for  letters  of 
introduction  for  himself  or  any  of  his  friends  after 
this  experiment.  He  needed  no  further  proof  that 
George  Washington  had  the  art  of  sending  complete 
answers.2 

1  Ford,  VI,  121. 

2  For  the  end  of  Conway  and  his  cabal  see  post,  112,  113. 


TRENTON  AND  VALLEY  FORGE          97 

On  October  25,  1777,  desertions  being  frequent 
among  the  officers  and  men,  Washington  issued  this 
circular  to  Pulaski  and  Colonels  of  Horse : 

I  am  sorry  to  find  that  the  liberty  I  granted  to  the 
light  dragoons  of  impressing  horses  near  the  enemy's 
line  has  been  most  horribly  abused  and  perverted  into  a 
mere  plundering  scheme.  I  intended  nothing  more  than 
that  the  horses  belonging  to  the  disaffected  in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  the  British  Army,  should  be  taken  for  the 
use  of  the  dismounted  dragoons,  and  expected,  that  they 
would  be  regularly  reported  to  the  Quartermaster  Gen 
eral,  that  an  account  might  be  kept  of  the  number  and 
the  persons  from  whom  they  were  taken,  in  order  to  a 
future  settlement.  —  Instead  of  this,  I  am  informed 
that  under  pretence  of  the  authority  derived  from  me, 
they  go  about  the  country  plundering  whomsoever  they 
are  pleased  to  denominate  tories,  and  converting  what 
they  get  to  their  own  private  profit  and  emolument. 
This  is  an  abuse  that  cannot  be  tolerated ;  and  as  I  find 
the  license  allowed  them,  has  been  made  a  sanction  for 
such  mischievous  practices,  I  am  under  the  necessity  of 
recalling  it  altogether.  You  will  therefore  immediately 
make  it  known  to  your  whole  corps,  that  they  are  not 
under  any  pretence  whatever  to  meddle  with  the  horses 
or  other  property  of  any  inhabitant  whatever  on  pain 
of  the  severest  punishment,  for  they  may  be  assured  as 
far  as  it  depends  upon  me  that  military  execution  will 
attend  all  those  who  are  caught  in  the  like  practice 
hereafter. l 

One  finds  nothing  ambiguous  in  this  order  to 
Pulaski  and  the  Colonels  of  Horse.  A  more  timid 
commander  would  have  hesitated  to  speak  so  curtly 

1  Ford,  vi,  141. 


98  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

at  a  time  when  the  officers  and  men  of  his  army  were 
deserting  at  will;  but  to  Washington  discipline  was 
discipline,  and  he  would  maintain  it,  cost  what  it 
might,  so  long  as  he  had  ten  men  ready  to  obey  him. 
Passing  over  three  weeks  we  find  Washington 
writing  from  Headquarters  on  November  izj-th  to 
Sir  William  Howe,  the  British  Commander-in-Chief, 
in  regard  to  the  maltreatment  of  prisoners  and  to 
proposals  of  exchanging  officers  on  parole. 

I  must  also  remonstrate  against  the  maltreatment 
and  confinement  of  our  officers  —  this,  I  am  informed, 
is  not  only  the  case  of  those  in  Philadelphia,  but  of  many 
in  New  York.  Whatever  plausible  pretences  may  be 
urged  to  authorize  the  condition  of  the  former,  it  is 
certain  but  few  circumstances  can  arise  to  justify  that 
of  the  latter.  I  appeal  to  you  to  redress  these  several 
wrongs;  and  you  will  remember,  whatever  hardships 
the  prisoners  with  us  may  be  subjected  to  will  be  charge 
able  on  you.  At  the  same  time  it  is  but  justice  to  ob 
serve,  that  many  of  the  cruelties  exercised  towards  pris 
oners  are  said  to  proceed  from  the  inhumanity  of  Mr. 
Cunningham,  provost-martial,  without  your  knowl 
edge  or  approbation.1 

The  letter  was  sufficiently  direct  for  Sir  William  to 
understand  it.  If  these  extracts  were  multiplied  by 
ten  they  would  represent  more  nearly  the  mass  of 
questions  which  came  daily  to  Washington  for  de 
cision.  The  decision  had  usually  to  be  made  in  haste 

1  Ford,  vi,  195. 


TRENTON  AND  VALLEY  FORGE          99 

and  always  with  the  understanding  that  it  would  not 
only  settle  the  question  immediately  involved,  but 
it  would  serve  as  precedent. 

The  victory  of  Saratoga  gave  a  great  impetus  to 
the  party  in  France  which  wished  Louis  XVI  to 
come  out  boldly  on  the  side  of  the  Americans  in  their 
war  with  the  British.  The  King  was  persuaded. 
Vergennes  also  secured  the  cooperation  of  Spain 
with  France,  for  Spain  had  views  against  England, 
and  she  agreed  that  if  a  readjustment  of  sovereignty 
were  coming  in  America,  it  would  be  prudent  for  her 
to  be  on  hand  to  press  her  own  claims.  On  February 
6,  1778,  the  treaty  between  France  and  America  was 
signed.1  Long  before  this,  however,  a  young  French 
enthusiast  who  proved  to  be  the  most  conspicuous 
of  all  the  foreign  volunteers,  the  Marquis  de  Lafay 
ette,  had  come  over  with  magnificent  promises  from 
Silas  Deane.  On  being  told,  however,  that  the  Con 
gress  found  it  impossible  to  ratify  Deane's  promises, 
he  modestly  requested  to  enlist  in  the  army  without 
pay.  Washington  at  once  took  a  fancy  to  him  and 
insisted  on  his  being  a  member  of  the  Commander's 
family. 

While  Burgoyne's  surrendered  army  was  marching 
to  Boston  and  Cambridge,  to  be  shut  up  as  prison 
ers,  Washington  was  taking  into  consideration  the 

1  The  treaty  was  ratified  by  Congress  May  4,  1778. 


ioo  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

best  place  in  which  to  pass  the  winter.  Several 
were  suggested,  Wilmington,  Delaware,  and  Valley 
Forge  —  about  twenty-five  miles  from  Philadelphia 
—  being  especially  urged  upon  him.  Washington 
preferred  the  latter,  chiefly  because  it  was  near 
enough  to  Philadelphia  to  enable  him  to  keep  watch 
on  the  movements  of  the  British  troops  in  that  city. 
Valley  Forge!  One  of  the  names  in  human  history 
associated  with  the  maximum  of  suffering  and  dis 
tress,  with  magnificent  patience,  sacrifice,  and  glory. 

The  surrounding  hills  were  covered  with  woods  and 
presented  an  inhospitable  appearance.  The  choice  was 
severely  criticised,  and  de  Kalb  described  it  as  a  wilder 
ness.  But  the  position  was  central  and  easily  defended. 
The  army  arrived  there  about  the  middle  of  December, 
and  the  erection  of  huts  began.  They  were  built  of  logs 
and  were  14  by  15  feet  each.  The  windows  were  covered 
with  oiled  paper,  and  the  openings  between  the  logs 
were  closed  with  clay.  The  huts  were  arranged  in  streets, 
giving  the  place  the  appearance  of  a  city.  It  was  the 
first  of  the  year,  however,  before  they  were  occupied, 
and  previous  to  that  the  suffering  of  the  army  had  be 
come  great.  Although  the  weather  was  intensely  cold, 
the  men  were  obliged  to  work  at  the  buildings,  with 
nothing  to  support  life  but  flour  unmixed  with  water, 
which  they  baked  into  cakes  at  the  open  fires  .  .  .  the 
horses  died  of  starvation  by  hundreds,  and  the  men  were 
obliged  to  haul  their  own  provisions  and  firewood.  As 
straw  could  not  be  found  to  protect  the  men  from  the 
cold  ground,  sickness  spread  through  their  quarters  with 
fearful  rapidity.  "The  unfortunate  soldiers,"  wrote 


TRENTON  AND  VALLEY  FORGE        101 

Lafayette  in  after  years,  "they  were  in  want  of  every 
thing;  they  had  neither  coats,  hats,  shirts  nor  shoes; 
their  feet  and  their  legs  froze  till  they  became  black,  and 
it  was  often  necessary  to  amputate  them."  . . .  The  army 
frequently  remained  whole  days  without  provisions,  and 
the  patient  endurance  of  the  soldiers  and  officers  was  a 
miracle  which  each  moment  served  to  renew  .  .  .  while 
the  country  around  Valley  Forge  was  so  impoverished 
by  the  military  operations  of  the  previous  summer  as 
to  make  it  impossible  for  it  to  support  the  army.  The 
sufferings  of  the  latter  were  chiefly  owing  to  the  ineffi 
ciency  of  Congress.1 

No  one  felt  more  keenly  than  did  Washington  the 
horrors  of  Valley  Forge.  He  had  not  believed  in 
forming  such  an  encampment,  and  from  the  start 
he  denounced  the  neglect  and  incompetence  of  the 
commissions.  In  a  letter  to  the  President  of  the  Con 
gress  on  December  3,  1777,  he  wrote: 

Since  the  month  of  July  we  have  had  no  assistance 
from  the  quartermaster-general,  and  to  want  of  assist 
ance  from  this  department  the  commissary-general 
charges  great  part  of  his  deficiency.  To  this  I  am  to  add, 
that,  notwithstanding  it  is  a  standing  order,  and  often 
repeated  that  the  troops  shall  always  have  two  days' 
provisions  by  them,  that  they  might  be  ready  at  any 
sudden  call ;  yet  an  opportunity  has  scarcely  ever  offered 
of  taking  an  advantage  of  the  enemy,  that  has  not 
either  been  totally  obstructed  or  greatly  impeded,  on 
this  account.  And  this,  the  great  and  crying  evil,  is  not 
all.  The  soap,  vinegar,  and  other  articles  allowed  by 
Congress,  we  see  none  of,  nor  have  we  seen  them,  I  be- 

1  F.  D.  Stone,  Struggle  for  the  Delaware,  VI,  ch.  5. 


102  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

lieve,  since  the  Battle  of  Brandy  wine.  The  first,  indeed, 
we  have  now  little  occasion  for;  few  men  having  more 
than  one  shirt,  many  only  the  moiety  of  one,  and  some 
none  at  all.  In  addition  to  which,  as  a  proof  of  the  lit 
tle  benefit  received  from  a  clothier-general,  and  as  a 
further  proof  of  the  inability  of  an  army,  under  the  cir 
cumstances  of  this,  to  perform  the  common  duties  of 
soldiers,  (besides  a  number  of  men  confined  to  hospitals 
for  want  of  shoes,  and  others  in  farmers'  houses  on  the 
same  account,)  we  have,  by  a  field-return  this  day  made, 
no  less  than  two  thousand  eight  hundred  and  ninety- 
eight  men  now  in  camp  unfit  for  duty,  because  they  are 
barefoot  and  otherwise  naked.  By  the  same  return  it 
appears,  that  our  whole  strength  in  Continental  troops, 
including  the  eastern  brigades,  which  have  joined  us 
since  the  surrender  of  General  Burgoyne,  exclusive  of  the 
Maryland  troops  sent  to  Wilmington,  amounts  to  no 
more  than  eight  thousand  two  hundred  in  camp  fit  for 
duty;  notwithstanding  which,  and  that  since  the  4th 
instant  our  numbers  fit  for  duty,  from  the  hardships  and 
exposures  they  have  undergone,  particularly  on  account 
of  blankets  (numbers  having  been  obliged,  and  still  are, 
to  sit  up  all  night  by  fires,  instead  of  taking  comfortable 
rest  in  a  natural  and  common  way) ,  have  decreased  near 
two  thousand  men. 

We  find  gentlemen,  without  knowing  whether  the 
army  was  really  going  into  winter-quarters  or  not  (for 
I  am  sure  no  resolution  of  mine  would  warrant  the  Re 
monstrance),  reprobating  the  measure  as  much  as  if 
they  thought  the  soldiers  were  made  of  stocks  or  stones 
and  equally  insensible  of  frost  and  snow ;  and  moreover, 
as  if  they  conceived  it  easily  practicable  for  an  inferior 
army,  under  the  disadvantages  I  have  described  ours  to 
be,  which  are  by  no  means  exaggerated,  to  confine  a 
superior  one,  in  all  respects  well-appointed  and  provided 


TRENTON  AND  VALLEY  FORGE        103 

for  a  winter's  campaign  within  the  city  of  Philadelphia, 
and  to  cover  from  depredation  and  waste  the  States  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Jersey.  But  what  makes  this  matter 
still  more  extraordinary  in  my  eye  is,  that  these  very 
gentlemen,  —  who  were  well  apprized  of  the  nakedness 
of  the  troops  from  ocular  demonstration,  who  thought 
their  own  soldiers  worse  clad  than  others,  and  who  ad 
vised  me  near  a  month  ago  to  postpone  the  execution  of 
a  plan  I  was  about  to  adopt,  in  consequence  of  a  resolve 
of  Congress  for  seizing  clothes,  under  strong  assurances 
that  an  ample  supply  would  be  collected  in  ten  days 
agreeably  to  a  decree  of  the  State  (not  one  article  of 
which,  by  the  by,  is  yet  come  to  hand)  —  should  think  a 
winter's  campaign,  and  the  covering  of  these  States  from 
the  invasion  of  an  enemy,  so  easy  and  practicable  a 
business.  I  can  assure  those  gentlemen,  that  it  is  a 
much  easier  and  less  distressing  thing  to  draw  remon 
strances  in  a  comfortable  room  by  a  good  fireside,  than 
to  occupy  a  cold,  bleak  hill,  and  sleep  under  frost  and 
snow,  without  clothes  or  blankets.  However,  although 
they  seem  to  have  little  feeling  for  the  naked  and  dis 
tressed  soldiers,  I  feel  superabundantly  for  them,  and, 
from  my  soul,  I  pity  those  miseries,  which  it  is  neither 
in  my  power  to  relieve  or  prevent. 

It  is  for  these  reasons,  therefore,  that  I  have  dwelt 
upon  the  subject,  and  it  adds  not  a  little  to  my  other 
difficulties  and  distress  to  find,  that  much  more  is  ex 
pected  of  me  than  is  possible  to  be  performed,  and  that 
upon  the  ground  of  safety  and  policy  I  am  obliged  to 
conceal  the  true  state  of  the  army  from  public  view,  and 
thereby  expose  myself  to  detraction  and  calumny.1 

Mrs.  Washington,  as  was  her  custom  throughout 
the  war,  spent  part  of  the  winter  with  the  General. 

1  Ford,  vi,  259,  262. 


104  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

Her  brief  allusions  to  Valley  Forge  would  hardly  lead 
the  reader  to  infer  the  horrors  that  nearly  ten  thou 
sand  American  soldiers  were  suffering. 

"Your  Mamma  has  not  yet  arrived,"  Washington 
writes  to  Jack  Custis,  "but  .  .  .  expected  every  hour. 
[My  aide]  Meade  set  off  yesterday  (as  soon  as  I  got  no 
tice  of  her  intention)  to  meet  her.  We  are  in  a  dreary 
kind  of  place,  and  uncomfortably  provided."  And  of 
this  reunion  Mrs.  Washington  wrote:  "I  came  to  this 
place,  some  time  about  the  first  of  February  when  I 
found  the  General  very  well,  ...  in  camp  in  what  is 
called  the  great  valley  on  the  Banks  of  the  Schuylkill. 
Officers  and  men  are  chiefly  in  Hutts,  which  they  say  is 
tolerably  comfortable;  the  army  are  as  healthy  as  can 
be  well  expected  in  general.  The  General's  apartment 
is  very  small;  he  has  had  a  log  cabin  built  to  dine  in, 
which  has  made  our  quarters  much  more  tolerable  than 
they  were  at  first."  1 

While  the  Americans  languished  and  died  at 
Valley  Forge  during  the  winter  months,  Sir  William 
Howe  and  his  troops  lived  in  Philadelphia  not  only 
in  great  comfort,  but  in  actual  luxury.  British  gold 
paid  out  in  cash  to  the  dealers  in  provisions  bought 
full  supplies  from  one  of  the  best  markets  in  Amer 
ica.  And  the  people  of  the  place,  largely  made  up  of 
Loyalists,  vied  with  each  other  in  providing  enter 
tainment  for  the  British  army.  There  were  fashion 
able  balls  for  the  officers  and  free-and-easy  revels  for 
the  soldiers.  Almost  at  any  time  the  British  army 

1  P.  L.  Ford,  The  True  George  Washington,  99. 


TRENTON  AND  VALLEY  FORGE        105 

might  have  marched  out  to  Valley  Forge  and  dealt 
a  final  blow  to  Washington's  naked  and  starving 
troops,  but  it  preferred  the  good  food  and  the  dissi 
pations  of  Philadelphia;  and  so  the  winter  dragged 
on  to  spring. 

Howe  was  recalled  to  England  and  General  Sir 
Henry  Clinton  succeeded  him  in  the  command  of  the 
British  forces.  He  was  one  of  those  well-upholstered 
carpet  knights  who  flourished  in  the  British  army  at 
that  time,  and  was  even  less  energetic  than  Howe. 
We  must  remember,  however,  that  the  English  of 
ficers  who  came  over  to  fight  in  America  had  had 
their  earlier  training  in  Europe,  where  conditions 
were  quite  different  from  those  here.  Especially  was 
this  true  of  the  terrain.  Occasionally  a  born  fighter 
like  Wolfe  did  his  work  in  a  day,  but  this  was  differ 
ent  from  spending  weeks  and  months  in  battleless 
campaigns.  The  Philadelphians  arranged  a  farewell 
celebration  for  General  Howe  which  they  called  the 
Meschianza,  an  elaborate  pageant,  said  to  be  the 
most  beautiful  ever  seen  in  America,  after  which 
General  Howe  and  General  Clinton  had  orders  to 
take  their  army  back  to  New  York.  As  much  as 
could  be  shipped  on  boats  went  that  way,  but  the 
loads  that  had  to  be  carried  in  wagons  formed  a  caval 
cade  twelve  miles  long,  and  with  the  attending  regi 
ment  advanced  barely  more  than  two  and  a  half 


io6  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

miles  a  day.  Washington,  whose  troops  entered 
Philadelphia  as  soon  as  the  British  marched  out, 
hung  on  the  retreating  column  and  at  Monmouth  en 
gaged  in  a  pitched  battle,  which  was  on  the  point  of 
being  a  decisive  victory  for  the  Americans  when, 
through  the  blunder  of  General  Lee,  it  collapsed.  The 
blunder  seemed  too  obviously  intentional,  but  Wash 
ington  appeared  in  the  midst  of  the  melee  and  urged 
on  the  men  to  retrieve  their  defeat.  This  was  the  battle 
of  which  one  of  the  soldiers  said  afterwards,  "At  Mon 
mouth  the  General  swore  like  an  angel  from  Heaven." 
He  prevented  disaster,  but  that  could  not  reconcile 
him  to  the  loss  of  the  victory  which  had  been  almost 
within  his  grasp.  Those  who  witnessed  it  never  for 
got  Washington's  rage  when  he  met  Lee  and  asked 
him  what  he  meant  and  then  ordered  him  to  the  rear. 
Washington  prepared  to  renew  the  battle  on  the  fol 
lowing  day,  but  during  the  night  Clinton  withdrew 
his  army,  and  by  daylight  was  far  on  his  way  to  the 
seacoast. 

Washington  followed  up  the  coast  and  took  up  his 
quarters  at  White  Plains. 


CHAPTER  VI 
AID  FROM  FRANCE;  TRAITORS 

THIS  month  of  July,  1778,  marked  two  vital 
changes  in  the  war.  The  first  was  the  transfer 
by  the  British  of  the  field  of  operations  to  the  South. 
The  second  was  the  introduction  of  naval  warfare 
through  the  coming  of  the  French.  The  British 
seemed  to  desire,  from  the  day  of  Concord  and  Lex 
ington  on,  to  blast  every  part  of  the  Colonies  with 
military  occupation  and  battles.  After  Washington 
drove  them  out  of  Boston  in  March,  1776,  they  left 
the  seaboard,  except  Newport,  entirely  free.  Then 
for  nearly  three  years  they  gave  their  chief  attention 
to  New  York  City  and  its  environs,  and  to  Jersey 
down  to,  and  including,  Philadelphia.  On  the  whole, 
except  for  keeping  their  supremacy  in  New  York, 
they  had  lost  ground  steadily,  although  they  had 
always  been  able  to  put  more  men  than  the  Ameri 
cans  could  match  in  the  field,  so  that  the  Americans 
always  had  an  uphill  fight.  Part  of  this  disadvan 
tage  was  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  British  had  a 
fleet,  often  a  very  large  fleet,  which  could  be  sent 
suddenly  to  distant  points  along  the  seacoast,  much 
to  the  upsetting  of  the  American  plans. 

The  French  Alliance,  ratified  during  the  spring, 


io8  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

not  only  gave  the  Americans  the  moral  advantage  of 
the  support  of  a  great  nation,  but  actually  the  sup 
port  of  a  powerful  fleet.  It  opened  French  harbors 
to  American  vessels,  especially  privateers,  which 
could  there  take  refuge  or  fit  out.  It  enabled  the 
Continentals  to  carry  on  commerce,  which  before  the 
war  had  been  the  monopoly  of  England.  Above  all 
it  brought  a  large  friendly  fleet  to  American  waters, 
which  might  aid  the  land  forces  and  must  always  be 
an  object  of  anxiety  to  the  British. 

Such  a  fleet  was  that  under  Count  d'Estaing,  who 
reached  the  mouth  of  Delaware  Bay  on  July  8, 
1778,  with  twelve  ships  of  the  line  and  four  frigates. 
He  then  went  to  New  York,  but  the  pilots  thought 
his  heavy  draught  ships  could  not  cross  the  bar 
above  Sandy  Hook;  and  so  he  sailed  off  to  Newport 
where  a  British  fleet  worsted  him  and  he  was  obliged 
to  put  into  Boston  for  repairs.  Late  in  the  autumn 
he  took  up  his  station  in  the  West  Indies  for  the 
winter.  This  first  experiment  of  French  naval  co 
operation  had  not  been  crowned  by  victory  as  the 
Americans  had  hoped,  but  many  of  the  other  advan 
tages  which  they  expected  from  the  French  Alliance 
did  ensue.  The  opening  of  the  American  ports  to  the 
trade  of  the  world,  and  incidentally  the  promotion 
of  American  privateering,  proved  of  capital  assist 
ance  to  the  cause  itself. 


AID  FROM  FRANCE;  TRAITORS        109 

The  summer  and  autumn  of  1778  passed  unevent 
fully  for  Washington  and  his  army.  He  was  not 
strong  enough  to  risk  any  severe  fighting,  but  wished 
to  be  near  the  enemy's  troops  to  keep  close  watch  on 
them  and  to  take  advantage  of  any  mistake  in  their 
moves.  We  cannot  see  how  he  could  have  saved 
himself  if  they  had  attacked  him  with  force.  But 
that  they  never  made  the  attempt  was  probably 
owing  to  orders  from  London  to  be  as  considerate  of 
the  Americans  as  they  could;  for  England  in  that 
year  had  sent  out  three  Peace  Commissioners  who 
bore  the  most  seductive  offers  to  the  Americans. 
The  Government  was  ready  to  pledge  that  there 
should  never  again  be  an  attempt  to  quell  the  Col 
onists  by  an  army  and  that  they  should  be  virtually 
self-governing.  But  while  the  Commissioners  tried 
to  persuade,  very  obviously,  they  did  not  receive 
any  official  recognition  from  the  Congress  or  the 
local  conventions,  and  when  winter  approached^ 
they  sailed  back  to  England  with  their  mission  ut 
terly  unachieved.  Rebuffed  in  their  purpose  of 
ending  the  war  by  conciliation,  the  British  now  re 
sorted  to  treachery  and  corruption.  I  do  not  know 
whether  General  Sir  Henry  Clinton  was  more  or 
less  of  a  man  of  honor  than  the  other  high  officers  in 
the  British  army  at  that  time.  We  feel  instinctively 
loath  to  harbor  a  suspicion  against  the  honor  of  these 


no  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

officers;  and  yet,  the  truth  demands  us  to  declare 
that  some  one  among  them  engaged  in  the  miserable 
business  of  bribing  Americans  to  be  traitors.  Where 
the  full  guilt  lies,  we  shall  never  know,  but  the  fact 
that  so  many  of  the  trails  lead  back  to  General  Clin 
ton  gives  us  a  reason  for  a  strong  surmise.  We  have 
lists  drawn  up  at  British  Headquarters  of  the  Ameri 
cans  who  were  probably  approachable,  and  the  de 
gree  of  ease  with  which  it  was  supposed  they  could  be 
corrupted.  "Ten  thousand  guineas  and  a  major- 
general's  commission  were  the  price  for  which  West 
Point,  with  its  garrison,  stores,  and  outlying  posts, 
was  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  British."  1  The 
person  with  whom  the  British  made  this  bargain  was 
Benedict  Arnold,  who  had  been  one  of  the  most 
efficient  of  Washington's  generals,  and  of  unques 
tioned  loyalty.  Major  John  Andre,  one  of  Clinton's 
adjutants,  served  as  messenger  between  Clinton  and 
Arnold.  On  one  of  these  errands  Andre,  somewhat 
disguised,  was  captured  by  the  Americans  and  taken 
before  Washington,  who  ordered  a  court-martial  at 
once.  Fourteen  officers  sat  on  it,  including  Generals 
Greene,  Lafayette,  and  Steuben.  In  a  few  hours 
they  brought  in  a  verdict  to  the  effect  that  "  Major 
Andre  ought  to  be  considered  a  spy  from  the  enemy, 
and  that  agreeable  to  the  law  and  usage  of  nations, 

1  Channing,  m,  305. 


AID  FROM  FRANCE;  TRAITORS        in 

it  is  their  opinion  he  ought  to  suffer  death."  1 
Throughout  the  proceedings  Andre  behaved  with 
great  dignity.  He  was  a  young  man  of  sympathetic 
nature.  Old  Steuben,  familiar  with  the  usage  in  the 
Prussian  army,  said:  " It  is  not  possible  to  save  him. 
He  put  us  to  no  proof,  but  a  premeditated  design 
to  deceive."  2 

He  was  sentenced  to  death  by  hanging  —  the 
doom  of  traitors.  He  did  not  fear  to  die,  but  that 
doom  repelled  him  and  he  begged  to  be  shot  instead. 
Washington,  however,  in  view  of  his  great  crime  and 
as  a  most  necessary  example  in  that  crisis,  firmly 
refused  to  commute  the  sentence.  So,  on  the  second 
of  October,  1780,  Andre  was  hanged. 

This  is  an  appropriate  place  to  refer  briefly  to  one 
of  the  most  trying  features  of  Washington's  career 
as  Commander-in-Chief.  From  very  early  in  the 
war  jealousy  inspired  some  of  his  associates  with  a 
desire  to  have  him  displaced.  He  was  too  conspicu 
ously  the  very  head  and  front  of  the  American 
cause.  Some  men,  doubtless  open  to  dishonest  sug 
gestions,  wished  to  get  rid  of  him  in  order  that  they 
might  carry  on  their  treasonable  conspiracy  with 
greater  ease  and  with  a  better  chance  of  success. 
Others  bluntly  coveted  his  position.  Perhaps  some 
of  them  really  thought  that  he  was  pursuing  wrong 

1  Channing,  in,  307.  2  Jbid.,  307. 


ii2  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

methods  or  policy.  However  it  may  be,  few  command- 
ers-in-chief  in  history  have  had  to  suffer  more  than 
Washington  did  from  malice  and  faction. 

The  most  serious  of  the  plots  against  him  was  the 
so-called  Con  way  Cabal,  whose  head  was  Thomas 
Conway,  an  Irishman  who  had  served  in  the  French 
army  and  had  come  over  early  in  the  war  to  the 
Colonies  to  make  his  way  as  a  soldier  of  fortune. 
He  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  typical  Irishmen 
who  had  no  sense  of  truth,  who  was  talkative  and 
boastful,  and  a  mirthful  companion.  It  happened 
that  Washington  received  a  letter  from  one  of  his 
friends  which  drew  from  him  the  following  note  to 
Brigadier-General  Conway: 

A  letter,  which  I  received  last  night,  contained  the 
following  paragraph: 

"In  a  letter  from  General  Conway  to  General  Gates 
he  says,  'Heaven  has  been  determined  to  save  your 
country,  or  a  weak  General  and  bad  counsellors  would 
have  ruined  it.'"  J 

It  was  characteristic  of  Washington  that  he  should 
tell  Conway  at  once  that  he  knew  of  the  latter's 
machinations.  Nevertheless  Washington  took  no 
open  step  against  him.  The  situation  of  the  army  at 
Valley  Forge  was  then  so  desperately  bad  that  he  did 
not  wish  to  make  it  worse,  perhaps,  by  interjecting 
into  it  what  might  be  considered  a  matter  personal 
1  Ford,  vi,  180. 


AID  FROM  FRANCE;  TRAITORS         113 

to  himself.  In  the  Congress  also  there  were  mem 
bers  who  belonged  to  the  Con  way  Cabal,  and  al 
though  it  was  generally  known  that  Washington  did 
not  trust  him,  Congress  raised  his  rank  to  that  of 
Major-General  and  appointed  him  Inspector-Gen 
eral  to  the  Army.  On  this  Conway  wrote  to  Wash 
ington:  "If  my  appointment  is  productive  of  any 
inconvenience,  or  otherwise  disagreeable  to  your 
Excellency,  as  I  neither  applied  nor  solicited  for 
this  place,  I  am  very  ready  to  return  to  France.*' 
The  spice  of  this  letter  consists  in  the  fact  that  Con- 
way's  disavowal  was  a  plain  lie;  for  he  had  been  so 
liciting  for  the  appointment  "with  forwardness," 
says  Mr.  Ford,  "almost  amounting  to  impudence." 
Conway  did  not  enjoy  his  new  position  long.  Being 
wounded  in  a  duel  with  an  American  officer,  and 
thinking  that  he  was  going  to  die,  he  wrote  to  Wash- 
ington:  "My  career  will  soon  be  over,  therefore 
justice  and  truth  prompt  me  to  declare  my  last 
sentiments.  You  are  in  my  eyes  the  great  and  good 
man.  May  you  long  enjoy  the  love,  veneration,  and 
esteem  of  these  states,  whose  liberties  you  have 
asserted  by  your  virtues."  l  But  he  did  not  die  of 
his  v/ound,  and  in  a  few  months  he  left  for  France. 
After  his  departure  the  cabal,  of  which  he  seemed  to 
be  the  centre,  died. 

1  Sparks,  254. 


114  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

The  story  of  this  cabal  is  still  shrouded  in  mys 
tery.  Whoever  had  the  original  papers  either  de 
stroyed  them  or  left  them  with  some  one  who  de 
posited  them  in  a  secret  place  where  they  have  been 
forgotten.  Persons  of  importance,  perhaps  of  even 
greater  importance  than  some  of  those  who  are 
known,  would  naturally  do  their  utmost  to  prevent 
being  found  out. 

Two  other  enemies  of  Washington  had  unsavory 
reputations  in  their  dealings  with  him.  One  of  these 
was  General  Horatio  Gates,  who  was  known  as 
ambitious  to  be  made  head  of  the  American  army  in 
place  of  Washington.  Gates  won  the  Battle  of  Sara 
toga  at  which  Burgoyne  surrendered  his  British 
army.  Washington  at  that  time  was  struggling  to 
keep  his  army  in  the  Highlands,  where  he  could 
watch  the  other  British  forces.  It  was  easy  for  any 
one  to  make  the  remark  that  Washington  had  not 
won  a  battle  for  many  months,  whereas  Gates  was 
the  hero  of  the  chief  victory  thus  far  achieved  by 
the  Americans.  The  shallow  might  think  as  they 
chose,  however:  the  backbone  of  the  country  stood 
by  Washington,  and  the  trouble  between  him  and 
Gates  came  to  no  further  outbreak. 

The  third  intriguer  was  General  Charles  Lee,  who, 
like  Gates,  was  an  Englishman,  and  had  served  under 
General  Braddock,  being  in  the  disaster  of  Fort 


AID  FROM  FRANCE;  TRAITORS        115 

Duquesne.  When  the  Revolution  broke  out,  he  took 
sides  with  the  Americans,  and  being  a  glib  and  forth- 
putting  person  he  talked  himself  into  the  repute  of 
being  a  great  general.  The  Americans  proudly  gave 
him  a  very  high  commission,  in  which  he  stood 
second  to  Washington,  the  Commander-in-Chief. 
But  being  taken  prisoner  by  the  British,  he  had  no 
opportunity  of  displaying  his  military  talents  for 
more  than  two  years.  Then,  when  Washington  was 
pursuing  the  enemy  across  Jersey,  Lee  demanded 
as  his  right  to  lead  the  foremost  division.  At  Mon- 
mouth  he  was  given  the  post  of  honor  and  he  at 
tacked  with  such  good  effect  that  he  had  already 
begun  to  beat  the  British  division  opposed  to  him 
when  he  suddenly  gave  strange  orders  which  threw 
his  men  into  confusion. 

Lafayette,  who  was  not  far  away,  noticed  the  dis 
order,  rode  up  to  Lee  and  remarked  that  the  time 
seemed  to  be  favorable  for  cutting  off  a  squadron  of 
the  British  troops.  To  this  Lee  replied:  "Sir,  you 
do  not  know  the  British  soldiers;  we  cannot  stand 
against  them;  we  shall  certainly  be  driven  back  at 
first,  and  we  must  be  cautious."  *  Washington  him 
self  had  by  this  time  perceived  that  something  was 
wrong  and  galloped  up  to  Lee  in  a  towering  passion. 
He  addressed  him  words  which,  so  far  as  I  know,  no 

1  Sparks,  275,  note  i. 


n6  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

historian  has  reported,  not  because  there  was  any 
ambiguity  in  them,  and  Lee's  line  was  sufficiently 
re-formed  to  save  the  day.  Lee,  however,  smarted 
under  the  torrent  of  reproof,  as  well  he  might.  The 
next  day  he  wrote  Washington  a  very  insulting 
letter.  Washington  replied  still  more  hotly.  Lee 
demanded  a  court-martial  and  was  placed  under 
arrest  on  three  charges:  /'First,  disobedience  of 
orders  in  not  attacking  the  enemy  agreeably  to  re 
peated  instructions;  secondly,  misbehavior  before 
the  enemy,  in  making  an  unnecessary,  disorderly 
and  shameful  retreat;  thirdly,  disrespect  to  the 
Commander  in-Chief  in  two  letters  written  after  the 
action."  l  By  the  ruling  of  the  court  all  the  charges 
against  General  Lee  were  sustained  with  the  ex 
ception  that  the  word  "shameful"  was  omitted. 
Lee  left  the  army,  retired  to  Philadelphia,  and  died 
before  the  end  of  the  Revolution.  General  Mifflin, 
another  conspicuous  member  of  the  cabal,  resigned 
at  the  end  of  the  year,  December,  1777.  So  the  tra- 
ducers  of  Washington  were  punished  by  the  reactions 
of  their  own  crimes. 

1  Sparks,  278.  Sparks  tells  the  story  that  when  Washington  ad 
ministered  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  his  troops  at  Valley  Forge,  soon 
after  Lee  had  rejoined  the  army,  the  generals,  standing  together,  held 
a  Bible.  But  Lee  deliberately  withdrew  his  hand  twice.  Washington 
asked  why  he  hesitated.  He  replied,  "As  to  King  George,  I  am  ready 
enough  to  absolve  myself  from  all  allegiance  to  him,  but  I  have  some 
scruples  about  the  Prince  of  Wales."  (Ibid.,  278.) 


AID  FROM  FRANCE;  TRAITORS         117 

That  the  malicious  hostility  of  his  enemies  really 
troubled  Washington,  such  a  letter  as  the  following 
from  him  to  President  Laurens  of  the  Congress  well 
indicates.  He  says: 

I  cannot  sufficiently  express  the  obligation  I  feel  to 
you,  for  your  friendship  and  politeness  upon  an  occa 
sion  in  which  I  am  so  deeply  interested.  I  was  not  unap- 
prized  that  a  malignant  faction  had  been  for  some  time 
forming  to  my  prejudice;  which,  conscious  as  I  am  of 
having  ever  done  all  in  my  power  to  answer  the  impor 
tant  purposes  of  the  trust  reposed  in  me,  could  not  but 
give  me  some  pain  on  a  personal  account.  But  my  chief 
concern  arises  from  an  apprehension  of  the  dangerous 
consequences,  which  intestine  dissensions  may  produce 
to  the  common  cause. 

As  I  have  no  other  view  than  to  promote  the  public 
good,  and  am  unambitious  of  honors  not  founded  in  the 
approbation  of  my  country,  I  would  not  desire  in  the 
least  degree  to  suppress  a  free  spirit  of  inquiry  into  any 
part  of  my  conduct,  that  even  faction  itself  may  deem 
reprehensible.  The  anonymous  paper  handed  to  you 
exhibits  many  serious  charges,  and  it  is  my  wish  that  it 
should  be  submitted  to  Congress.  This  I  am  the  more 
inclined  to,  as  the  suppression  or  concealment  may  pos 
sibly  involve  you  in  embarrassments  hereafter,  since  it 
is  uncertain  how  many  or  who  may  be  privy  to  the  con 
tents. 

My  enemies  take  an  ungenerous  advantage  of  me. 
They  know  the  delicacy  of  my  situation,  and  that  mo 
tives  of  policy  deprive  me  of  the  defence,  I  might  other 
wise  make  against  their  insidious  attacks.  They  know  I 
cannot  combat  their  insinuations,  however  injurious, 
without  disclosing  secrets,  which  it  is  of  the  utmost  mo 
ment  to  conceal.  But  why  should  I  expect  to  be  exempt 


ii8  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

from  censure,  the  unfailing  lot  of  an  elevated  station? 
Merit  and  talents,  with  which  I  can  have  no  pretensions 
of  rivalship,  have  ever  been  subject  to  it.  My  heart  tells 
me,  that  it  has  been  my  unremitted  aim  to  do  the  best 
that  circumstances  would  permit;  yet  I  may  have  been 
very  often  mistaken  in  my  judgment  of  the  means,  and 
may  in  many  instances  deserve  the  imputation  of  error. 
(Valley  Forge,  31  January,  1778.)  l 

Such  was  the  sort  of  explanation  which  was  wrung 
from  the  Silent  Man  when  he  explained  to  an  inti 
mate  the  secrets  of  his  heart. 

To  estimate  the  harassing  burden  of  these  plots  we 
must  bear  in  mind  that,  while  Washington  had  to 
suffer  them  in  silence,  he  had  also  to  deal  every  day 
with  the  Congress  and  with  an  army  which,  at  Val 
ley  Forge,  was  dying  slowly  of  cold  and  starvation. 
There  was  literally  no  direction  from  which  he  could 
expect  help;  he  must  hold  out  as  long  as  he  could 
and  keep  from  the  dwindling,  disabled  army  the  fact 
that  some  day  they  would  wake  up  to  learn  that  the 
last  crumb  had  been  eaten  and  that  death  only  re 
mained  for  them.  On  one  occasion,  after  he  had 
visited  Philadelphia  and  had  seen  the  Congress  in 
action,  he  unbosomed  himself  about  it  in  a  letter 
which  contained  these  terrible  words: 

If  I  was  to  be  called  upon  to  draw  a  picture  of  the 
times  and  of  men,  from  what  I  have  seen,  and  heard, 
and  in  part  know,  I  should  in  one  word  say  that  idleness, 

1  Ford,  vi,  353- 


AID  FROM  FRANCE;  TRAITORS         119 

dissipation  and  extravagance  seems  to  have  laid  fast  hold 
of  most  of  them.  That  speculation  —  peculation  —  and 
an  insatiable  thirst  for  riches  seems  to  have  got  the  bet 
ter  of  every  other  consideration  and  almost  of  every 
order  of  men.  That  party  disputes  and  personal  quar 
rels  are  the  great  business  of  the  day  whilst  the  momen 
tous  concerns  of  an  empire  —  a  great  and  accumulated 
debt  —  ruined  finances  —  depreciated  money  —  and 
want  of  credit  (which  in  their  consequences  is  the  want 
of  everything)  are  but  secondary  considerations,  and 
postponed  from  day  to  day  —  from  week  to  week  as  if 
our  affairs  wear  the  most-promising  aspect. 

The  events  of  1778  made  a  lasting  impression  on 
King  George  III.  The  alliance  of  France  with  the 
Americans  created  a  sort  of  reflex  patriotism  which 
the  Government  did  what  it  could  to  foster.  British 
Imperialism  flamed  forth  as  an  ideal,  one  whose 
purposes  must  be  to  crush  the  French.  The  most 
remarkable  episode  was  the  return  of  the  Earl  of 
Chatham,  much  broken  and  in  precarious  health,  to 
the  King's  fold.  To  the  venerable  statesman  the 
thought  that  any  one  with  British  blood  in  his  veins 
should  stand  by  rebels  of  British  blood,  or  by  their 
French  allies,  was  a  cause  of  rage.  On  April  7,  1778, 
the  great  Chatham  appeared  in  the  House  of  Lords 
and  spoke  for  Imperialism  and  against  the  Ameri 
cans  and  French.  There  was  a  sudden  stop  in  his 
speaking,  and  a  moment  later,  confusion,  as  he  fell 
in  a  fit.  He  never  spoke  there  again,  and  though  he 


120  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

was  hurried  home  and  cared  for  by  the  doctors  as 
best  they  could,  he  died  on  the  eleventh  of  May.  At 
the  end  he  reverted  to  the  dominant  ideal  of  his 
life  —  the  supremacy  of  England.  So  his  chief  rival 
in  Parliament,  Edmund  Burke,  who  shocked  more 
than  half  of  England  by  seeming  to  approve  the 
nascent  French  Revolution,  died  execrating  it. 

The  failure  of  the  Commission  on  Reconciliation 
to  get  even  an  official  hearing  in  America  further  de 
pressed  George  III,  and  there  seemed  to  have  flitted 
through  his  unsound  mind  more  and  more  frequent 
premonitions  that  England  might  not  win  after  all. 
Having  made  friendly  overtures,  which  were  re 
jected,  he  now  planned  to  be  more  savage  than  ever. 
In  1779  the  American  privateers  won  many  victories 
which  gave  them  a  reputation  out  of  proportion  to 
the  importance  of  the  battles  they  fought,  or  the 
prizes  they  took.  Chief  among  the  commanders  of 
these  vessels  was  a  Scotchman,  John  Paul  Jones, 
who  sailed  the  Bonhomme  Richard  and  with  two 
companion  ships  attacked  the  Serapis  and  the 
Scarborough,  convoying  a  company  of  merchantmen 
off  Flamborough  Head.  Night  fell,  darkness  came, 
the  Bonhomme  Richard  and  the  Serapis  kept  up 
bombarding  each  other  at  short  range.  During  a 
brief  pause,  Pearson,  the  British  captain,  called  out, 
"Have  you  struck  your  colors?"  at  which  Jones 


AID  FROM  FRANCE;  TRAITORS        121 

shouted  back,  "I  have  not  yet  begun  to  fight." 
Before  morning  the  Serapis  surrendered  and  in  the 
forenoon  the  victorious  Bonhomme  Richard  sank. 
Europe  rang  with  the  exploit;  not  merely  those  easily 
thrilled  by  a  spectacular  engagement,  but  those  who 
looked  deeper  began  to  ask  themselves  whether  the 
naval  power  that  must  be  reckoned  with  was  not 
rising  in  the  West. 

Meanwhile,  Washington  kept  his  uncertain  army 
near  New  York.  The  city  swarmed  with  Loyalists, 
who  at  one  time  boasted  of  having  a  volunteer  or 
ganization  larger  than  Washington's  army.  These 
later  years  seem  to  have  been  the  hey-day  of  the 
Loyalists  in  most  of  the  Colonies,  although  the 
Patriots  passed  severe  laws  against  them,  sequestrat 
ing  their  property  and  even  banishing  them.  In 
places  like  New  York,  where  General  Clinton  main 
tained  a  refuge,  they  stayed  on,  hoping,  as  they  had 
done  for  several  years,  that  the  war  would  soon  be 
over  and  the  King's  authority  restored. 

In  the  South  there  were  several  minor  rights,  in 
which  now  the  British  and  now  the  Americans  tri 
umphed.  At  the  end  of  December,  1779,  Clinton  and 
Cornwallis  with  nearly  eight  thousand  men  went 
down  to  South  Carolina  intending  to  reduce  that 
State  to  submission.  One  of  Washington's  lieuten 
ants,  General  Lincoln,  ill-advisedly  thought  that  he 


122  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

could  defend  Charleston.  But  as  soon  as  the  enemy 
were  ready,  they  pressed  upon  him  hard  and  he  sur 
rendered.  The  year  ended  in  gloom.  The  British 
were  virtually  masters  in  the  Carolinas  and  in 
Georgia.  The  people  of  those  States  felt  that  they 
had  been  abandoned  by  the  Congress  and  that  they 
were  cut  off  from  relations  with  the  Northern  States. 
The  glamour  of  glory  at  sea  which  had  brightened 
them  all  the  year  before  had  vanished.  John  Paul 
Jones  might  win  a  striking  sea-fight,  but  there  was  no 
navy,  nor  ships  enough  to  transport  troops  down  to 
the  Southern  waters  where  they  might  have  turned 
the  tide  of  battle  on  shore.  During  the  winter  the 
British  continued  their  marauding  in  the  South. 
For  lack  of  troops  Washington  was  obliged  to  stay 
in  his  quarters  near  New  York  and  feel  the  irksome- 
ness  of  inactivity.  General  Nathanael  Greene,  a 
very  energetic  officer,  next  indeed  to  Washington 
himself  in  general  estimation,  commanded  in  the 
South.  At  the  Cowpens  (January  17,  1781)  one  of 
his  lieutenants  —  Morgan,  a  guerilla  leader  —  killed 
or  captured  nearly  all  of  Tarleton's  men,  who 
formed  a  specially  crack  regiment.  A  little  later 
Washington  marched  southward  to  Virginia,  hoping 
to  cooperate  with  the  French  fleet  under  Rocham- 
beau  and  to  capture  Benedict  Arnold,  now  a  British 
Major-General,  who  was  doing  much  damage  in 


AID  FROM  FRANCE;  TRAITORS         123 

Virginia.  Arnold  was  too  wary  to  be  caught.  Corn- 
wallis,  the  second  in  command  of  the  British  forces, 
pursued  Lafayette  up  and  down  Virginia.  Clinton, 
the  British  Commander-in-Chief,  began  to  feel  nerv 
ous  for  the  safety  of  New  York  and  wished  to  de 
tach  some  of  his  forces  thither.  Cornwallis  led  his 
army  into  Yorktown  and  proceeded  to  fortify  it,  so 
that  it  might  resist  a  siege.  Now  at  last  Washington 
felt  that  he  had  the  enemy's  army  within  his  grasp. 
Sixteen  thousand  American  and  French  troops  were 
brought  down  from  the  North  to  furnish  the  fighting 
arm  he  required. 

Yorktown  lay  on  the  south  shore  of  the  York 
River,  an  estuary  of  Chesapeake  Bay.  On  the  op 
posite  side  the  little  town  of  Gloucester  projected 
into  the  river.  In  Yorktown  itself  the  English  had 
thrown  up  two  redoubts  and  had  drawn  some  lines 
of  wall.  The  French  kept  up  an  unremitting  cannon 
ade,  but  it  became  evident  that  the  redoubts  must 
be  taken  in  order  to  subdue  the  place.  Washington, 
much  excited,  took  his  place  in  the  central  battery 
along  with  Generals  Knox  and  Lincoln  and  their 
staff.  Those  about  him  recognized  the  peril  he  was 
in,  and  one  of  his  adjutants  called  his  attention  to  the 
fact  that  the  place  was  much  exposed.  "  If  you  think 
so,"  said  he,  "you  are  at  liberty  to  step  back." 
Shortly  afterward  a  musket  ball  struck  the  cannon 


124  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

in  the  embrasure  and  rolled  on  till  it  fell  at  his  feet. 
General  Knox  took  him  by  the  arm.  "My  dear 
General,"  he  exclaimed,  "we  can't  spare  you  yet." 
"It  is  a  spent  ball,"  Washington  rejoined  calmly; 
"no  harm  is  done."  When  the  redoubts  were  taken, 
he  drew  a  long  breath  and  said  to  Knox:  "The  work 
is  done,  and  well  done."  1  Lord  Cornwallis  saw  that 
his  position  was  desperate,  if  not  hopeless.  And  on 
October  i6th  he  made  a  plucky  attempt  to  retard 
the  final  blow,  but  he  did  not  succeed.  That  evening 
he  thought  of  undertaking  a  last  chance.  He  would 
cross  the  York  River  in  flatboats,  land  at  Gloucester, 
and  march  up  the  country  through  Virginia,  Mary 
land,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  York.  Any  one  who 
knew  the  actual  state  of  that  region  understood  that 
Cornwall  is's  plan  was  crazy;  but  it  is  to  be  judged  as 
the  last  gallantry  of  a  brave  man.  During  the  night 
he  put  forth  on  his  flatboats,  which  were  driven  out 
of  their  course  and  much  dispersed  by  untoward 
winds.  They  had  to  return  to  Yorktown  by  morning, 
and  at  ten  o'clock  Cornwallis  ordered  that  a  parley 
should  be  beaten.  Then  he  despatched  a  flag  of 
truce  with  a  letter  to  Washington  proposing  cessa 
tion  of  hostilities  for  twenty-four  hours.  Washington 
knew  that  British  ships  were  on  their  way  from  New 
York  to  bring  relief  and  he  did  not  wish  to  grant  so 

1  Irving,  iv,  378, 


AID  FROM  FRANCE;  TRAITORS         125 

much  delay.  He,  therefore,  proposed  that  the  formal 
British  terms  should  be  sent  to  him  in  writing;  upon 
which  he  would  agree  to  a  two  hours'  truce.  It  was 
the  morning  of  the  iQth  of  October  that  the  final 
arrangement  was  made.  Washington,  on  horseback, 
attended  by  his  staff,  headed  the  American  line. 
His  troops,  in  worn-out  uniforms,  but  looking  happy 
and  victorious,  were  massed  near  him.  Count  Ro- 
chambeau,  with  his  suite,  held  place  on  the  left  of 
the  road,  the  French  troops  all  well-uniformed  and 
equipped;  and  they  marched  on  the  field  with  a 
military  band  playing  --  the  first  time,  it  was  said, 
that  this  had  been  known  in  America.  "  About  two 
o'clock  the  garrison  sallied  forth  and  passed  through 
with  shouldered  arms,  slow  and  solemn  steps,  colors 
cased,  and  drums  beating  a  British  march."  1  Gen 
eral  O'Hara,  who  led  them,  rode  up  to  Washington 
and  apologized  for  the  absence  of  Lord  Cornwallis, 
who  was  indisposed.  Washington  pointed  O'Hara 
to  General  Lincoln,  who  was  to  receive  the  submis 
sion  of  the  garrison.  They  were  marched  off  to  a 
neighboring  field  where  they  showed  a  sullen  and  dis 
pirited  demeanor  and  grounded  their  arms  so  noisily 
and  carelessly  that  General  Lincoln  had  to  reprove 
them. 

With  little  delay  Washington  went  back  to  the 

1  Irving,  iv,  383. 


126  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

North  with  his  army,  expecting  to  see  the  first  fruits 
of  the  capitulation.  There  were  nearly  seventeen 
thousand  Allied  troops  at  Yorktown  of  whom  three 
thousand  were  militia  of  Virginia.  The  British  force 
under  Cornwallis  numbered  less  than  eight  thousand 
men. 

Months  were  required  before  the  truce  between 
the  two  belligerents  resulted  in  peace.  But  the 
people  of  America  hailed  the  news  of  Yorktown  as 
the  end  of  the  war.  They  had  hardly  admitted  to 
themselves  the  gravity  of  the  task  while  the  war 
lasted,  and  being  now  relieved  of  immediate  danger, 
they  gave  themselves  up  to  surprising  insouciance. 
A  few  among  them  who  thought  deeply,  Washing 
ton  above  all,  feared  that  the  British  might  indulge 
in  some  surprise  which  they  would  find  it  hard  to 
repel. 

But  the  American  Revolution  was  indeed  ended, 
and  the  American  Colonies  of  1775  were  indeed  in 
dependent  and  free.  Even  in  the  brief  outline  of  the 
course  of  events  which  I  have  given,  it  must  appear 
that  the  American  Revolution  was  almost  the  most 
hare-brained  enterprise  in  history.  After  the  first 
days  of  Lexington  and  Concord,  when  the  farmers 
and  country-folk  rushed  to  the  centres  to  check  the 
British  invaders,  the  British  had  almost  continu 
ously  a  large  advantage  in  position  and  in  number  of 


AID  FROM  FRANCE;  TRAITORS         127 

troops.  And  in  those  early  days  the  Colonists  fought, 
not  for  Independence,  but  for  the  traditional  rights 
which  the  British  Crown  threatened  to  take  from 
them.  Now  they  had  their  freedom,  but  what  a 
freedom!  There  were  thirteen  unrelated  political 
communities  bound  together  now  only  by  the  fact  of 
having  been  united  in  their  common  struggle  against 
England.  Each  had  adopted  a  separate  constitution, 
and  the  constitutions  were  not  uniform  nor  was  there 
any  central  unifying  power  to  which  they  all  looked 
up  and  obeyed.  The  vicissitudes  of  the  war,  which 
had  been  fought  over  the  region  of  twelve  hundred 
miles  of  coast,  had  proved  the  repellent  differences 
of  the  various  districts.  The  slave-breeder  and  the 
slave-owner  of  Virginia  and  the  States  of  the  South 
had  little  in  common  with  the  gnarled  descendants 
of  the  later  Puritans  in  New  England.  What  prin 
ciple  could  be  found  to  knit  them  together?  The 
war  had  at  least  the  advantage  of  bringing  home  to 
all  of  them  the  evils  of  war  which  they  all  instinc 
tively  desired  to  escape.  The  numbers  of  the  dis 
affected,  particularly  of  the  Loyalists  who  openly 
sided  with  the  King  and  with  the  British  Govern 
ment,  were  much  larger  than  we  generally  suppose, 
and  they  not  only  gave  much  direct  help  and  com 
fort  to  the  enemy,  but  also  much  indirect  and  insid 
ious  aid.  In  the  great  cities  like  New  York  and 


128  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

Philadelphia  they  numbered  perhaps  two  fifths  of 
the  total  population,  and,  as  they  were  usually  the 
rich  and  influential  people,  they  counted  for  more 
than  their  showing  in  the  census.  How  could  they 
ever  be  unified  in  the  American  Republic?  How 
many  of  them,  like  the  traitorous  General  Charles 
Lee,  would  confess  that,  although  they  were  willing 
to  pass  by  George  III  as  King,  they  still  felt  devotion 
and  loyalty  to  the  Prince  of  Wales? 

Some  of  those  who  had  leaned  toward  Loyalism, 
to  be  on  what  they  supposed  would  prove  the  win 
ning  side,  quickly  forgot  their  lapse  and  were  very 
enthusiastic  in  acclaiming  the  Patriotic  victory. 
Those  Irreconcilables  who  had  not  already  fled  did 
so  at  once,  leaving  their  property  behind  them  to  be 
confiscated  by  the  Government.  On  only  one  point 
did  there  seem  to  be  unanimity  and  accord.  That 
was  that  the  dogged  prosecution  of  the  war  and  the 
ultimate  victory  must  be  credited  to  George  Wash 
ington.  Others  had  fought  valiantly  and  endured 
hardships  and  fatigues  and  gnawing  suspense,  but 
without  him,  who  never  wavered,  they  could  not 
have  gone  on.  He  had  among  them  some  able  lieu 
tenants,  but  not  one  who,  had  he  himself  fallen  out 
of  the  command  by  wound  or  sickness  for  a  month, 
could  have  taken  his  place.  The  people  knew  this 
and  they  ,now  paid  him  in  honor  and  gratitude  for 


AID  FROM  FRANCE;  TRAITORS  129 
what  he  had  done  for  them.  If  there  were  any  mem 
bers  of  the  old  cabal,  any  envious  rivals,  they  either 
held  their  peace  or  spoke  in  whispers.  The  masses 
were  not  yet  weary  of  hearing  Aristides  called  the 
Just. 


CHAPTER  VII 
WASHINGTON  RETURNS  TO  PEACE 

NEARLY  two  years  elapsed  before  the  real 
settlement  of  the  war.  The  English  held  New 
York  City,  Charleston,  and  Savannah,  the  strong 
garrisons.  It  seemed  likely  that  they  would  have 
been  glad  to  arrange  the  terms  of  peace  sooner,  but 
there  was  much  inner  turmoil  at  home.  The  men 
who,  through  thick  and  thin,  had  abetted  the  King 
in  one  plan  after  another  to  fight  to  the  last  ditch 
had  nothing  more  to  propose.  Lord  North,  when  he 
heard  of  the  surrender  of  Yorktown,  almost  shrieked, 
"My  God!  It  is  all  over;  it  is  all  over!"  and  was 
plunged  in  gloom.  A  new  ministry  had  to  be  formed. 
Lord  North  had  been  succeeded  by  Rockingham, 
who  died  in  July,  1782,  and  was  followed  by  Shel- 
burne,  supposed  to  be  rather  liberal,  but  to  share 
King  George's  desire  to  keep  down  the  Whigs.  Ne 
gotiations  over  the  terms  of  peace  were  carried  on 
with  varying  fortune  for  more  than  a  year.  John 
Adams,  John  Jay,  and  Benjamin  Franklin  were  the 
American  Peace  Commissioners.  The  preliminaries 
between  Great  Britain  and  America  were  signed  on 
December  30,  1782,  and  with  France  and  Spain 


WASHINGTON  RETURNS  TO  PEACE     131 

nearly  two  months  later.  The  Dutch  held  out  still 
longer  into  1783.  Washington,  at  his  Headquarters 
in  Newburgh,  New  York,  had  been  awaiting  the 
news  of  peace,  not  lazily,  but  planning  for  a  new 
campaign  and  meditating  upon  the  various  projects 
which  might  be  undertaken.  To  him  the  news  of  the 
actual  signing  of  the  treaty  came  at  the  end  of 
March.  He  replied  at  once  to  Theodorick  Bland;  a 
letter  which  gave  his  general  views  in  regard  to  the 
needs  and  rights  of  the  army  before  it  should  be  dis 
banded  : 

It  is  now  the  bounden  duty  of  every  one  to  make  the 
blessings  thereof  as  diffusive  as  possible.  Nothing  would 
so  effectually  bring  this  to  pass  as  the  removal  of  those 
local  prejudices  which  intrude  upon  and  embarrass  that 
great  line  of  policy  which  alone  can  make  us  a  free,  happy 
and  powerful  People.  Unless  our  Union  can  be  fixed  upon 
such  a  basis  as  to  accomplish  these,  certain  I  am  we  have 
toiled,  bled  and  spent  our  treasure  to  very  little  purpose. 

We  have  now  a  National  character  to  establish,  and 
it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  stamp  favorable  im 
pressions  upon  it;  let  justice  be  then  one  of  its  char 
acteristics,  and  gratitude  another.  Public  creditors  of 
every  denomination  will  be  comprehended  in  the  first; 
the  Army  in  a  particular  manner  will  have  a  claim  to 
the  latter;  to  say  that  no  distinction  can  be  made  be 
tween  the  claims  of  public  creditors  is  to  declare  that 
there  is  no  difference  in  circumstances;  or  that  the  serv 
ices  of  all  men  are  equally  alike.  This  Army  is  of  near 
eight  years'  standing,  six  of  which  they  have  spent  in 
the  Field  without  any  other  shelter  from  the  inclemency 
of  the  seasons  than  Tents,  or  such  Houses  as  they  could 


132  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

build  for  themselves  without  expense  to  the  public. 
They  have  encountered  hunger,  cold  and  nakedness. 
They  have  fought  many  Battles  and  bled  freely.  They 
have  lived  without  pay  and  in  consequence  of  it,  officers 
as  well  as  men  have  subsisted  upon  their  Rations. 

They  have  often,  very  often,  been  reduced  to  the  ne 
cessity  of  eating  Salt  Porke,  or  Beef  not  for  a  day,  or  a 
week  only  but  months  together  without  Vegetables  or 
money  to  buy  them ;  or  a  cloth  to  wipe  on. 

Many  of  them  do  better,  and  to  dress  as  Officers  have 
contracted  heavy  debts  or  spent  their  patrimonies. 
The  first  see  the  Doors  of  gaols  open  to  receive  them, 
whilst  those  of  the  latter  are  shut  against  them.  Is  there 
no  discrimination  then  —  no  extra  exertion  to  be  made 
in  favor  of  men  in  these  peculiar  circumstances,  in  the 
event  of  their  military  dissolution?  Or,  if  no  worse 
cometh  of  it,  are  they  to  be  turned  adrift  soured  and 
discontented,  complaining  of  the  ingratitude  of  their 
Country,  and  under  the  influence  of  these  passions  to 
become  fit  subjects  for  unfavorable  impressions,  and 
unhappy  dissentions?  For  permit  me  to  add,  tho  every 
man  in  the  Army  feels  his  distress  —  it  is  not  every  one 
that  will  reason  to  the  cause  of  it. 

I  would  not  from  the  observations  here  made,  be  un 
derstood  to  mean  that  Congress  should  (because  I  know 
they  cannot,  nor  does  the  army  expect  it)  pay  the  full 
arrearages  due  to  them  till  Continental  or  State  funds 
are  established  for  the  purpose.  They  would,  from  what 
I  can  learn,  go  home  contented  —  nay  —  thankful  to 
receive  what  I  have  mentioned  in  a  more  public  letter 
of  this  date,  and  in  the  manner  there  expressed.  And 
surely  this  may  be  effected  with  proper  exertions.  Or 
what  possibility  was  there  of  keeping  the  army  together, 
if  the  war  had  continued,  when  the  victualls,  clothing, 
and  other  expenses  of  it  were  to  have  been  added  ?  An 
other  thing,  Sir,  (as  I  mean  to  be  frank  and  free  in  my 


WASHINGTON  RETURNS  TO  PEACE     133 

communications  on  this  subject,)  I  will  not  conceal 
from  you  —  it  is  the  dissimilarity  in  the  payments  to 
men  in  Civil  and  Military  life.  The  first  receive  every 
thing  —  the  others  get  nothing  but  bare  subsistence  — 
they  ask  what  this  is  owing  to?  and  reasons  have 
been  assigned,  which,  say  they,  amount  to  this  —  that 
men  in  Civil  life  have  stronger  passions  and  better  pre 
tensions  to  indulge  them,  or  less  virtue  and  regard  for 
their  Country  than  us,  —  otherwise,  as  we  are  all  con 
tending  for  the  same  prize  and  equally  interested  in  the 
attainment  of  it,  why  do  we  not  bear  the  burthen 
equally?  * 

The  army  was  indeed  the  incubus  of  the  Ameri 
cans.  They  could  not  fight  the  war  without  it,  but 
they  had  never  succeeded  in  mastering  the  difficulties 
of  maintaining  and  strengthening  it.  The  system  of 
a  standing  army  was  of  course  not  to  be  thought  of, 
and  the  uncertain  recruits  who  took  its  place  were 
mostly  undisciplined  and  unreliable.  When  the  exi 
gencies  became  pressing,  a  new  method  was  resorted 
to,  and  then  the  usual  erosion  of  life  in  the  field,  the 
losses  by  casualties  and  sickness,  caused  the  numbers 
to  dwindle.  Long  ago  the  paymaster  had  ceased  to 
pretend  to  pay  off  the  men  regularly  so  that  there 
was  now  a  large  amount  of  back  pay  due  them. 
Largely  through  Washington's  patriotic  exhorta 
tions  had  they  kept  fighting  to  the  end;  and,  with 
peace  upon  them,  they  did  not  dare  to  disband  be- 

1  Ford,  x,  203. 


134  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

cause  they  feared  that,  if  they  left  before  they  were 
paid,  they  would  never  be  paid.  Washington  felt 
that,  if  thousands  of  discontented  and  even  angry 
soldiers  were  allowed  to  go  back  to  their  homes 
without  the  means  of  taking  up  any  work  or  busi 
ness,  great  harm  would  be  done.  The  love  of  country, 
which  he  believed  to  be  most  important  to  inculcate, 
would  not  only  be  checked  but  perverted.  They  al 
ready  had  too  many  reasons  to  feel  aggrieved.  Why 
should  they,  the  men  who  risked  their  lives  in  battle 
and  actually  had  starved  or  frozen  in  winter  quarters, 
go  unpaid,  whereas  every  civilian  who  had  a  post 
under  the  Government  lived  at  least  safely  and 
healthily  and  was  paid  with  fair  promptitude? 
They  felt  now  that  their  best  hope  for  justice  lay 
in  General  Washington's  interest  in  their  behalf; 
and  that  interest  of  his  seems  now  one  of  the 
noblest  and  wisest  and  most  patriotic  of  his  expres 
sions. 

Washington  had  need  to  be  prepared  for  any 
emergency.  Thus  a  body  of  officers  deliberated  not 
only  a  mutiny  of  the  army,  but  a  coup  d'etat,  in 
which  they  planned  to  overthrow  the  flimsy  Federa 
tion  of  the  thirteen  States  and  to  set  up  a  monarchy. 
They  wrote  to  Washington  announcing  their  in 
tention  and  their  belief  that  he  would  make  an  ideal 
monarch.  He  was  amazed  and  chagrined.  He  re- 


WASHINGTON  RETURNS  TO  PEACE    135 

plied  in  part  as  follows,  to  the  Colonel  who  had 
written  him: 

I  am  much  at  a  loss  to  conceive  what  part  of  my  con 
duct  could  have  given  encouragement  to  an  address, 
which  to  me  seems  big  with  the  greatest  mischiefs,  that 
can  befall  my  country.  If  I  am  not  deceived  in  the 
knowledge  of  myself,  you  could  not  have  found  a  person 
to  whom  your  schemes  are  more  disagreeable.  I  must 
add,  that  no  man  possesses  a  more  sincere  wish  to  see 
ample  justice  done  to  the  army  than  I  do;  and,  as  far  as 
my  powers  and  influence,  in  a  constitutional  way,  extend, 
they  shall  be  employed  to  the  extent  of  my  abilities  to 
effect  it,  should  there  be  any  occasion.  Let  me  conjure 
you,  then,  if  you  have  any  regard  for  your  country,  con 
cern  for  yourself  or  posterity,  or  respect  for  me,  to  ban 
ish  these  thoughts  from  your  mind  and  never  communi 
cate,  as  from  yourself  to  any  one  else,  a  sentiment  of  the 
like  nature.1 

The  turmoil  of  the  army  continued  throughout 
the  year  and  into  the  next.  The  so-called  "  New- 
burgh  Address"  set  forth  the  quarrel  of  the  soldiers 
and  Washington's  discreet  reply.  On  April  19,  1783, 
the  eighth  anniversary  of  the  first  fighting  at  Con 
cord,  a  proclamation  was  issued  to  the  American 
army  announcing  the  official  end  of  all  hostilities. 
In  June  Washington  issued  a  circular  letter  to  the 
Governors  of  the  States,  bidding  them  farewell  and 
urging  them  to  guard  their  precious  country.  Many 
of  the  American  troops  were  allowed  to  go  home  on 

1  Sparks,  355. 


136  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

furlough.  In  company  with  Governor  Clinton,  he 
went  up  the  Hudson  to  Ticonderoga  and  then  west 
ward  to  Fort  Schuyler.  Being  invited  by  Congress, 
which  was  then  sitting  at  Annapolis,  he  journeyed 
thither.  Before  he  left  New  York  City  arrangements 
were  made  for  a  formal  farewell  to  his  comrades  in 
arms.  I  quote  the  description  of  it  from  Chief  Jus 
tice  Marshall's  "Life  of  Washington": 

This  affecting  interview  took  place  on  the  4th  of  De 
cember.  At  noon,  the  principal  officers  of  the  army  as 
sembled  at  Frances'  tavern;  soon  after  which,  their 
beloved  commander  entered  the  room.  His  emotions 
were  too  strong  to  be  concealed.  Filling  a  glass,  he 
turned  to  them  and  said,  "with  a  heart  full  of  love  and 
gratitude,  I  now  take  leave  of  you ;  I  most  devoutly  wish 
that  your  latter  days  may  be  as  prosperous  and  happy, 
as  your  former  ones  have  been  glorious  and  honorable." 
Having  drunk,  he  added,  "  I  cannot  come  to  each  of  you 
to  take  my  leave,  but  shall  be  obliged  to  you,  if  each  of 
you  will  come  and  take  me  by  the  hand."  General  Knox, 
being  nearest,  turned  to  him.  Incapable  of  utterance, 
Washington  grasped  his  hand,  and  embraced  him.  In 
the  same  affectionate  manner,  he  took  leave  of  each  suc 
ceeding  officer.  In  every  eye  was  the  tear  of  dignified 
sensibility;  and  not  a  word  was  articulated  to  interrupt 
the  majestic  silence  and  the  tenderness  of  the  scene. 
Leaving  the  room,  he  passed  through  the  corps  of  light 
infantry,  and  walked  to  White  hall,  where  a  barge 
waited  to  convey  him  to  Powles'  hook  (Paulus  Hook). 
The  whole  company  followed  in  mute  and  solemn  pro 
cession,  with  dejected  countenances,  testifying  feelings 
of  delicious  melancholy,  which  no  language  can  describe. 
Having  entered  the  barge,  he  turned  to  the  company; 


WASHINGTON  RETURNS  TO  PEACE     137 

and  waving  his  hat,  bade  them  a  silent  adieu.  They 
paid  him  the  same  affectionate  compliment,  and  after 
the  barge  had  left  them,  returned  in  the  same  solemn 
manner  to  the  place  where  they  had  assembled.1 

Marshall's  description,  simple  but  not  common 
place,  reminds  one  of  Ville-Hardouin's  pictures,  so 
terse,  so  rich  in  color,  of  the  Barons  of  France  in  the 
Fifth  Crusade.  The  account  once  read,  you  can 
never  forget  that  majestic,  silent  figure  of  Wash 
ington  being  rowed  across  to  Paulus  Hook  with  no 
sound  but  the  dignified  rhythm  of  the  oars.  Not  a 
cheer,  not  a  word ! 

His  reception  by  Congress  took  place  on  Tuesday, 
the  twenty- third  of  December,  at  twelve  o'clock. 
Again  I  borrow  from  Chief  Justice  Marshall's  ac 
count: 

When  the  hour  arrived  for  performing  a  ceremony  so 
well  calculated  to  recall  to  the  mind  the  various  inter 
esting  scenes  which  had  passed  since  the  commission 
now  to  be  returned  was  granted,  the  gallery  was  crowded 
with  spectators,  and  many  respectable  persons,  among 
whom  were  the  legislative  and  executive  characters  of 
the  state,  several  general  officers,  and  the  consul  general 
of  France,  were  admitted  on  the  floor  of  Congress. 

The  representatives  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  union 
remained  seated  and  covered.  The  spectators  were 
standing  and  uncovered.  The  General  was  introduced 
by  the  secretary  and  conducted  to  a  chair.  After  a  de 
cent  interval,  silence  was  commanded,  and  a  short  pause 

1  Marshall,  iv,  561. 


138  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

ensued.  The  President  (General  Mifflin)  then  informed 
him  that  "  the  United  States  in  Congress  assembled  were 
prepared  to  receive  his  communications."  With  a  na 
tive  dignity  improved  by  the  solemnity  of  the  occasion, 
the  General  rose  and  delivered  the  following  address: 

"Mr.  President: 

"The  great  events  on  which  my  resignation  depended, 
having  at  length  taken  place,  I  have  now  the  honor  of 
offering  my  sincere  congratulations  to  Congress,  and  of 
presenting  myself  before  them,  to  surrender  into  their 
hands  the  trust  committed  to  me  and  to  claim  the  in 
dulgence  of  retiring  from  the  service  of  my  country. 

"  Happy  in  the  confirmation  of  our  independence  and 
sovereignty  and  pleased  with  the  opportunity  afforded 
the  United  States,  of  becoming  a  respectable  nation, 
I  resign  with  satisfaction  the  appointment  I  accepted 
with  diffidence ;  a  diffidence  in  my  abilities  to  accomplish 
so  arduous  a  task,  which,  however,  was  superseded  by  a 
confidence  in  the  rectitude  of  our  cause,  the  support  of 
the  supreme  power  of  the  union,  and  the  patronage  of 
heaven. 

"The  successful  termination  of  the  war  has  verified 
the  most  sanguine  expectations ;  and  my  gratitude  for  the 
interposition  of  Providence,  and  the  assistance  I  have 
received  from  my  countrymen,  increases  with  every 
review  of  the  momentous  contest. 

"While  I  repeat  my  obligations  to  the  army  in  gen 
eral,  I  should  do  injustice  to  my  own  feelings  not  to  ac 
knowledge  in  this  place,  the  peculiar  services  and  dis 
tinguished  merits  of  the  gentlemen  who  have  been 
attached  to  my  person  during  the  war.  It  was  impossi 
ble  the  choice  of  confidential  officers  to  compose  my 
family  should  have  been  more  fortunate.  Permit  me, 
sir,  to  recommend  in  particular,  those  who  have  con 
tinued  in  the  service  to  the  present  moment,  as  worthy 
of  the  favorable  notice  and  patronage  of  Congress. 


WASHINGTON  RETURNS  TO  PEACE     139 

"I  consider  it  as  an  indispensable  duty  to  close  this 
last  act  of  my  official  life,  by  commending  the  interests 
of  our  dearest  country,  to  the  protection  of  Almighty 
God,  and  those  who  have  the  superintendence  of  them 
to  his  holy  keeping. 

"Having  now  finished  the  work  assigned  me,  I  retire 
from  the  great  theatre  of  action,  and  bidding  an  affec 
tionate  farewell  to  this  august  body,  under  whose  orders 
I  have  so  long  acted,  I  here  offer  my  commission,  and 
take  my  leave  of  all  the  employments  of  public  life." 

After  advancing  to  the  chair,  and  delivering  his  com 
mission  to  the  President,  he  returned  to  his  place,  and 
received  standing,  the  answer  of  Congress  which  was 
delivered  by  the  President.  In  the  course  of  his  remarks, 
General  Mifflin  said: 

"Having  defended  the  standard  of  liberty  in  this  new 
world:  having  taught  a  new  lesson  useful  to  those  who 
inflict,  and  to  those  who  feel  oppression,  you  retire  from 
the  great  theatre  of  action,  with  the  blessings  of  your 
fellow  citizens;  but  the  glory  of  your  virtues  will  not 
terminate  with  your  military  command :  it  will  continue 
to  animate  remotest  ages."  1 

The  meeting  then  broke  up,  and  Washington  de 
parted.  He  went  that  same  afternoon  to  Virginia 
and  reached  Mount  Vernon  in  the  evening.  We  can 
imagine  with  what  satisfaction  and  gratitude  he,  to 
whom  home  was  the  dearest  place  in  the  world,  re 
turned  to  the  home  he  had  seen  only  once  by  chance 
since  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution,  eight  years 
before.  Probably  few  of  those  who  had  risen  to  the 
highest  station  in  their  country  said,  and  felt  more 

1  Marshall,  iv,  563. 


140  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

honestly,  that  they  were  grateful  at  being  allowed 
by  Fate  to  retire  from  office,  than  did  Washington. 
To  be  relieved  of  responsibility,  free  from  the  hourly 
spur,  day  and  night,  of  planning  and  carrying  out, 
of  trying  to  find  food  for  starving  soldiers,  of  leading 
forlorn  hopes  against  the  truculent  enemy,  must 
have  seemed  to  the  weary  and  war-worn  General 
like  a  call  from  the  Hesperides.  Men  of  his  iron 
nature,  and  of  his  capacity  for  work  and  joy  in  it,  do 
not,  of  course,  really  delight  in  idleness.  They  may 
think  that  they  crave  idleness,  but  in  reality  they 
crave  the  power  of  going  on. 

It  took  comparatively  little  effort  for  Washington 
to  fall  into  his  old  way  of  life  at  Mount  Vernon,  al 
though  there,  too,  much  was  changed.  Old  buildings 
had  fallen  out  of  repair.  There  were  new  experiments 
to  be  tried,  and  the  general  purpose  to  be  carried  out 
of  making  Mount  Vernon  a  model  place  in  that  part 
of  the  country.  Whether  he  would  or  not,  he  was 
sought  for  almost  daily  by  persons  who  came  from 
all  parts  of  the  United  States,  and  from  overseas. 
Hospitality  being  not  merely  a  duty,  but  a  passion 
with  him,  he  gladly  received  the  strangers  and 
learned  much  from  them.  From  their  accounts  of 
their  interviews  we  see  that,  although  he  was  really 
the  most  natural  of  men,  some  of  them  treated  him 
as  if  he  were  some  strange  creature  —  a  holy  white 


WASHINGTON  RETURNS  TO  PEACE     141 

elephant  of  Siam,  or  the  Grand  Lama  of  Tibet.  Age 
had  brought  its  own  deductions  and  reservations.  It 
does  not  appear  that  parties  rode  to  hounds  after 
the  fox  any  more  at  Mount  Vernon.  And  then 
there  were  the  irreparable  gaps  that  could  not  be 
filled.  At  Belvoir,  where  his  neighbors  the  Fair 
faxes,  friends  of  a  lifetime,  used  to  live,  they  lived 
no  more.  One  of  them,  more  than  ninety  years  old, 
had  turned  his  face  to  the  wall  on  hearing  of  the 
surrender  at  Yorktown.  Another  had  gone  back  to 
England  to  live  out  his  life  there,  true  to  his  Tory 
convictions. 

Washington  had  sincerely  believed,  no  doubt,  that 
he  was  to  spend  the  rest  of  his  life  in  dignified  leisure, 
and  especially  that  he  would  mix  no  more  in  political 
or  public  worries;  but  he  soon  found  that  he  had 
deceived  himself.  The  army,  until  it  officially  dis 
banded  at  the  end  of  1783,  caused  him  constant 
anxiety  interspersed  with  fits  of  indignation  over 
the  indifference  and  inertia  of  the  Congress,  which 
showed  no  intention  of  being  just  to  the  soldiers. 
The  reason  for  its  attitude  seems  hard  to  state  posi 
tively.  May  it  be  that  the  Congress,  jealous  since 
the  war  began  of  being  ruled  by  the  man  on  horse 
back,  feared  at  its  close  to  grant  Washington's 
demands  for  it  lest  they  should  bring  about  the  very 
thing  they  had  feared  and  avoided  —  the  creation  of 


I42  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

a  military  dictatorship  under  Washington?  When 
Vergennes  proposed  to  entrust  to  Washington  a  new 
subsidy  from  France,  the  Congress  had  taken  um 
brage  and  regarded  such  a  proposal  as  an  insult  to 
the  American  Government.  Should  they  admit  that 
the  Government  itself  was  not  sufficiently  sound  and 
trustworthy,  and  that,  therefore,  a  private  individ 
ual,  even  though  he  had  been  a  leader  of  the  Revolu 
tion,  must  be  called  into  service? 

From  among  persons  pestered  by  this  obsession, 
it  was  not  surprising  that  the  idea  should  spring  up 
that  Washington  was  at  heart  a  believer  in  monarchy 
and  that  he  might,  when  the  opportunity  favored, 
allow  himself  to  be  proclaimed  king.  Several  years 
later  he  wrote  to  his  trusted  friend,  John  Jay: 

I  am  told  that  even  respectable  characters  speak  of 
a  monarchical  form  of  government  without  horror.  From 
thinking  proceeds  speaking ;  thence  to  acting  is  often  but 
a  single  step.  But  how  irrevocable  and  tremendous! 
What  a  triumph  for  our  enemies  to  verify  their  predic 
tions!  What  a  triumph  for  the  advocates  of  despotism 
to  find,  that  we  are  incapable  of  governing  ourselves,  and 
that  systems  founded  on  the  basis  of  equal  liberty  are 
merely  ideal  and  fallacious!  Would  to  God,  that  wise 
measures  may  be  taken  in  time  to  avert  the  conse 
quences  we  have  but  too  much  reason  to  apprehend.1 

In  the  renewal  of  his  life  at  Mount  Vernon,  Wash 
ington  gave  almost  as  much  attention  to  the  culti- 
1  Hapgood,  285. 


WASHINGTON  RETURNS  TO  PEACE     143 

vation  of  friendship  as  to  that  of  his  estate.  He 
pursued  with  great  zest  the  career  of  planter-farmer. 
"I  think,"  he  wrote  a  friend,  "with  you,  that  the 
life  of  a  husbandman  of  all  others  is  the  most  delec 
table.  It  is  honorable,  it  is  amusing,  and,  with  judi 
cious  management,  it  is  profitable.  To  see  plants 
rise  from  the  earth  and  flourish  by  the  superior  skill 
and  bounty  of  the  laborer  fills  a  contemplative  mind 
with  ideas  which  are  more  easy  to  be  conceived  than 
expressed."  1 

The  cultivation  of  his  friendships  he  carried  on  by 
letters  and  by  entertaining  his  friends  as  often  as  he 
could  at  Mount  Vernon.  To  Benjamin  Harrison  he 
wrote:  "  My  friendship  is  not  in  the  least  lessened  by 
the  difference,  which  has  taken  place  in  our  political 
sentiments,  nor  is  my  regard  for  you  diminished  by 
the  part  you  have  acted."  2 

How  constantly  the  flock  of  guests  frequented 
Mount  Vernon  we  can  infer  from  this  entry  in  his 
diary  for  June  30,  1785:  "  Dined  with  only  Mrs. 
Washington  which,  I  believe,  is  the  first  instance  of 
it  since  my  retirement  from  public  life."  To  his 
young  friend  Lafayette  he  wrote  without  reserve  in 
a  vein  of  deep  affection : 

At  length,  my  dear  Marquis,  I  am  become  a  private 
citizen  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac;  and  under  the 

*  Hapgood,  288.  *  Ibid.,  289. 


144  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

shadow  of  my  own  vine  and  my  own  fig-tree,  free  from 
the  bustle  of  a  camp,  and  the  busy  scenes  of  public  life, 
I  am  solacing  myself  with  those  tranquil  enjoyments,  of 
which  the  soldier,  who  is  ever  in  pursuit  of  fame,  the 
statesman,  whose  watchful  days  and  sleepless  nights  are 
spent  in  devising  schemes  to  promote  the  welfare  of  his 
own,  perhaps  the  ruin  of  other  countries,  as  if  this  globe 
was  insufficient  for  us  all,  and  the  courtier,  who  is  al 
ways  watching  the  countenance  of  his  prince,  in  hopes 
of  catching  a  gracious  smile,  can  have  very  little  con 
ception.  I  have  not  only  retired  from  all  public  employ 
ments,  but  I  am  retiring  within  myself,  and  shall  be  able 
to  view  the  solitary  walk,  and  tread  the  paths  of  private 
life,  with  heartful  satisfaction.  Envious  of  none,  I  am 
determined  to  be  pleased  with  all;  and  this,  my  dear 
friend,  being  the  order  of  my  march,  I  will  move  gently 
down  the  stream  of  life,  until  I  sleep  with  my  fathers.1 

In  September,  1784,  he  made  a  journey  on  horse 
back,  with  a  pack-train  to  carry  his  tents  and  food, 
into  the  Northwestern  country,  which  had  especially 
interested  him  since  the  early  days  when  Fort  Du- 
quesne  was  the  goal  of  his  wandering.  He  observed 
very  closely  and  his  mind  was  filled  with  large  im 
aginings  of  what  the  future  would  see  in  the  develop 
ment  of  the  Northwest.  Since  his  youth  he  had 
never  lost  the  conviction  that  an  empire  would 
spring  up  there;  only  make  the  waterways  easy  and 
safe  and  he  felt  sure  that  a  very  large  commerce 
would  result  and  with  it  the  extension  of  civilization. 
In  a  memorial  to  the  legislature  he  urged  that  Vir- 
1  Hapgood,  287. 


WASHINGTON  RETURNS  TO  PEACE     145 

ginia  was  the  best  placed  geographically  of  all  the 
States  to  undertake  the  work  of  establishing  con 
nection  with  the  States  of  the  Northwest,  and  he 
suggested  various  details  which,  when  acted  upon 
later,  proved  to  be,  as  Sparks  remarked,  "the  first 
suggestion  of  the  great  system  of  internal  improve 
ments  which  has  since  been  pursued  in  the  United 
States." 

On  returning  to  Mount  Vernon,  he  entertained 
Lafayette  for  the  last  time  before  he  sailed  for  France. 
After  he  had  gone,  Washington  wrote  him  this 
letter  in  which  appears  the  affection  of  a  friend  and 
the  reverie  of  an  old  man  looking  somewhat  wist 
fully  towards  sunset,  "and  after  that  the  dark": 

In  the  moment  of  our  separation,  upon  the  road  as  I 
travelled,  and  every  hour  since,  I  have  felt  all  that  love, 
respect,  and  attachment  for  you,  with  which  length  of 
years,  close  connection,  and  your  merits  have  inspired 
me.  I  often  asked  myself  as  our  carnages  separated, 
whether  that  was  the  last  sight  I  ever  should  have  of 
you?  And,  though  I  wished  to  say  No,  my  fears  an 
swered  Yes.  I  called  to  mind  the  days  of  my  youth,  and 
found  they  had  long  since  fled  to  return  no  more;  that 
I  was  now  descending  the  hill  I  had  been  fifty-two  years 
climbing,  and  that,  though  I  was  blest  with  a  good  con 
stitution,  I  was  of  a  short-lived  family  and  might  soon 
expect  to  be  entombed  in  the  mansion  of  my  fathers. 
These  thoughts  darkened  the  shades,  and  gave  a  gloom 
to  the  picture,  and  consequently  to  my  prospect  of  see 
ing  you  again. 


146  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

We  should  not  overlook  the  fact  that  Washington 
declined  all  gifts,  including  a  donation  from  Virginia, 
for  his  services  as  General  during  the  war.  He  had 
refused  to  take  any  pay,  merely  keeping  a  strict  ac 
count  of  what  he  spent  for  the  Government  from 
1775  to  1782.  This  amounted  to  over  £15,000  and 
covered  only  sums  actually  disbursed  by  him  for  the 
army.  Unlike  Marlborough,  Nelson,  and  Welling 
ton,  and  other  foreign  chieftains  on  whom  grateful 
countrymen  conferred  fortunes  and  high  titles, 
Washington  remains  as  the  one  great  state-founder 
who  literally  gave  his  services  to  his  country. 

Sparks  gives  the  following  interesting  account  of 
the  way  in  which  Washington  spent  his  days  after 
his  return  to  Mount  Vernon: 

His  habits  were  uniform,  and  nearly  the  same  as  they 
had  been  previous  to  the  war.  He  rose  before  the  sun  and 
employed  himself  in  his  study,  writing  letters  or  read 
ing,  till  the  hour  of  breakfast.  When  breakfast  was  over, 
his  horse  was  ready  at  the  door,  and  he  rode  to  his  farms 
and  gave  directions  for  the  day  to  the  managers  and 
laborers.  Horses  were  likewise  prepared  for  his  guests, 
whenever  they  chose  to  accompany  him,  or  to  amuse 
themselves  by  excursions  into  the  country.  Returning 
from  his  fields,  and  despatching  such  business  as  hap 
pened  to  be  on  hand,  he  went  again  to  his  study,  and  con 
tinued  there  till  three  o'clock,  when  he  was  summoned  to 
dinner.  The  remainder  of  the  day  and  the  evening  were 
devoted  to  company,  or  to  recreation  in  the  family  circle. 
At  ten  he  retired  to  rest.  From  these  habits  he  seldom 


WASHINGTON  RETURNS  TO  PEACE     147 

deviated,  unless  compelled  to  do  so  by  particular  cir 
cumstances.1 

This  list  does  not  include  the  item  which  Wash 
ington  soon  found  the  greatest  of  his  burdens  — 
letter-writing.  His  correspondence  increased  rapidly 
and  to  an  enormous  extent. 

Many  mistakenly  think  [he  writes  to  Richard  Henry 
Lee]  that  I  am  retired  to  ease,  and  to  that  kind  of  tran- 
quility  which  would  grow  tiresome  for  want  of  employ 
ment;  but  at  no  period  of  my  life,  not  in  the  eight  years 
I  served  the  public,  have  I  been  obliged  to  write  so  much 
myself,  as  I  have  done  since  my  retirement.  ...  It  is 
not  the  letters  from  my  friends  which  give  me  trouble, 
or  add  aught  to  my  perplexity.  It  is  references  to  old 
matters,  with  which  I  have  nothing  to  do ;  applications 
which  often  cannot  be  complied  with;  inquiries  which 
would  require  the  pen  of  a  historian  to  satisfy ;  letters  of 
compliment  as  unmeaning  perhaps  as  they  are  trouble 
some,  but  which  must  be  attended  to ;  and  the  common 
place  business  which  employs  my  pen  and  my  time  often 
disagreeably.  These,  with  company,  deprive  me  of  ex 
ercise,  and  unless  I  can  obtain  relief,  must  be  productive 
of  disagreeable  consequences.2 

When  we  remember  that  Washington  used  to 
write  most  of  his  letters  himself,  and  that  from  boy 
hood  his  handwriting  was  beautifully  neat,  almost 
like  copper-plate,  in  its  precision  and  elegance,  we 
shall  understand  what  a  task  it  must  have  been  for 
him  to  keep  up  his  correspondence.  A  little  later  he 

1  Sparks,  389,  390.  2  Irving,  iv,  466. 


148  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

employed  a  young  New  Hampshire  graduate  of 
Harvard,  Tobias  Lear,  who  graduated  in  1783,  who 
served  him  as  secretary  until  his  death,  and  un 
doubtedly  lightened  the  epistolary  cares  of  the  Gen 
eral.  But  Washington  continued  to  carry  on  much 
of  the  letter-writing,  especially  the  intimate,  him 
self;  and,  like  the  Adamses  and  other  statesmen  of 
that  period,  he  kept  letter- books  which  contained 
the  first  drafts  or  copies  of  the  letters  sent. 

Another  source  of  annoyance,  to  which,  however, 
he  resigned  himself  as  contentedly  as  he  could,  was 
the  work  of  the  artists  who  came  to  him  to  beg  him 
to  sit  for  his  picture  or  statue.  Of  the  painters  the 
most  eminent  were  Charles  Peale  and  his  son  Rem 
brandt.  Of  the  sculptors  Houdon  undoubtedly  made 
the  best  life-sized  statue  —  that  which  still  adorns 
the  Capitol  at  Richmond,  Virginia  —  and  from  the 
time  it  was  first  exhibited  has  been  regarded  as  the 
best,  most  lifelike.  Another,  sitting  statue,  was  made 
for  the  State  of  North  Carolina  by  the  Italian, 
Canova,  the  most  celebrated  of  the  sculptors  of  that 
day.  The  artist  shows  a  Roman  costume,  a  favorite 
of  his,  unless,  as  in  the  case  of  Napoleon,  he  preferred 
complete  nudity.  This  statue  was  much  injured  in  a 
fire  which  nearly  consumed  the  Capitol  at  Raleigh. 
The  English  sculptor,  Chantrey,  executed  a  third 
statue  in  which  Washington  was  represented  in  mili- 


By  Gilbert  Stuart 


WASHINGTON  RETURNS  TO  PEACE    149 

tary  dress.  This  work  used  to  be  shown  at  the  State 
House  in  Boston. 

Of  the  many  painted  portraits  of  Washington, 
those  by  Gilbert  Stuart  have  come  to  be  accepted  as 
authentic;  especially  the  head  in  the  painting  which 
hung  in  the  Boston  Athenaeum  as  a  pendant  to  that 
of  Martha  Washington,  and  is  now  in  the  Boston 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts.  But  as  I  remarked  earlier,  the 
fact  that  none  of  the  painters  indicate  the  very  strong 
marks  of  smallpox  (which  he  took  on  his  trip  to  Bar 
bados)  on  Washington's  face  creates  a  natural  suspi 
cion  as  to  accuracy  in  detail  of  any  of  the  portraits. 
Perhaps  the  divergence  among  them  is  not  greater 
than  that  among  those  of  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  and 
indicates  only  the  marked  incapacity  of  some  of  the 
painters  who  did  them.  We  are  certainly  justified  in 
saying  that  Washington's  features  varied  consider 
ably  from  his  early  prime  to  the  days  when  he  was 
President.  We  have  come  to  talk  about  him  as  an 
old  man  because  from  the  time  when  he  was  sixty 
years  old  he  frequently  used  that  expression  himself; 
although,  as  he  died  at  sixty-seven,  he  was  never 
really  "an  old  man."  One  wonders  whether  those 
who  lived  among  pioneer  conditions  said  and  hon 
estly  believed  that  they  were  old  at  the  time  when, 
as  we  think,  middle  age  would  hardly  have  begun. 
Thus  Abraham  Lincoln  writes  of  himself  as  a  patri- 


150  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

arch,  and  no  doubt  sincerely  thought  that  he  was,  at 
a  time  when  he  had  just  reached  forty.  The  two 
features  in  Washington's  face  about  which  the  por 
traitists  differ  most  are  his  nose  and  his  mouth. 
In  the  early  portrait  by  Charles  Peale,  his  nose  is 
slightly  aquiline,  but  not  at  all  so  massive  and  con 
spicuous  as  in  some  of  the  later  works.  His  mouth, 
and  with  it  the  expression  of  the  lower  part  of  his 
face,  changed  after  he  began  to  wear  false  teeth.  Is 
it  not  fair  to  suppose  that  the  effigies  of  Washington, 
made  in  later  years  and  usually  giving  him  a  some 
what  stiff  and  expansive  grin,  originated  in  the  fact 
that  his  false  set  of  teeth  lacked  perfect  adjustment? 
Thus  Washington  dropped  into  the  ways  of  peace; 
working  each  day  what  would  have  been  a  long  stint 
for  a  strong  young  man,  and  thinking,  besides,  more 
than  most  men  thought  of  the  needs  and  future  of 
the  country  to  which  he  had  given  liberty  and  in 
dependence.  His  chief  anxiety  henceforth  was  that 
the  United  States  of  America  should  not  miss  the 
great  destiny  for  which  he  believed  the  Lord  had 
prepared  it. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
WELDING  THE  NATION 

THE  doubt,  the  drifting,  the  incongruities  and 
inconsistencies,  the  mistakes  and  follies  which 
marked  the  five  years  after  1783  form  what  has  been 
well  called  "The  Critical  Period  of  American  His 
tory/'  They  proved  that  the  conquests  of  peace  may 
not  only  be  more  difficult  than  the  conquests  of  war, 
but  that  they  may  outlast  those  of  war.  Who  should 
be  the  builders  of  the  Ship  of  State?  Those  who  had 
courage  and  clear  vision,  who  loved  justice,  who 
were  patient  and  humble  and  unflagging,  and  who 
believed  with  an  ineluctable  conviction  that  right 
eousness  exalteth  a  nation;  they  were  the  simple  fish 
ermen  who  in  the  little  church  at  Torcello  predicted 
the  splendor  and  power  of  Venice;  they  were  the 
stern  pioneers  of  Plymouth  and  Boston  who  laid  the 
foundations  of  an  empire  greater  than  that  of  Rome. 
It  happened  that  during  the  American  Revolution 
and  immediately  afterward,  a  larger  number  of  such 
men  existed  in  what  had  been  the  American  Colonies 
than  anywhere  else  at  any  other  time  in  history.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  Revolution,  within  a  few  weeks 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  some  of  these 


152  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

men,  impelled  by  a  common  instinct,  adopted  Arti 
cles  of  Confederation  which  should  hold  the  former 
Colonies  together  and  enable  them  to  maintain  a 
common  front  against  the  enemy  during  the  war. 
The  Congress  controlled  military  and  civic  affairs, 
but  the  framers  of  the  Articles  were  wary  and  too 
timid  to  grant  the  Congress  sufficient  powers,  with  the 
result  that  Washington,  who  embodied  the  dynamic 
control  of  the  war,  was  always  most  inadequately 
supported;  and  as  he  fared,  so  fared  his  subordinates. 
At  the  end  of  the  war  the  Americans  found  that 
they  had  won,  not  only  freedom,  but  also  Independ 
ence,  the  desire  for  which  was  not  among  their 
original  motives.  Each  of  the  thirteen  States  was 
independent;  they  all  felt  the  need  of  a  union  which 
would  enable  them  to  protect  themselves ;  of  a  com 
mon  coinage  and  postage;  of  certain  common  laws 
for  criminal  and  similar  cases;  of  a  common  govern 
ment  to  direct  their  affairs  with  other  nations.  But 
by  habit  and  by  training  each  was  local  rather  than 
National  in  its  outlook.  The  Georgian  had  nothing 
in  common  with  the  men  of  Massachusetts  Bay 
whose  livelihood  depended  upon  fisheries,  or  with  the 
Virginian  of  the  Western  border,  to  whom  his  relations 
with  the  Indians  were  his  paramount  concern.  The 
Rhode  Islander,  busy  with  his  manufactures,  knew 
and  cared  nothing  for  the  South  Carolinian  with  his 


WELDING  THE  NATION  153 

rice  plantations.  How  to  find  a  common  denomina 
tor  for  all  these?  That  was  the  business  of  them 
all. 

The  one  thing  which  Washington  regarded  as 
likely  and  against  which  he  wished  to  have  every 
precaution  taken,  was  a  possible  attempt  of  the  Eng 
lish  to  pick  a  quarrel  over  some  small  matter  and 
bring  on  a  renewal  of  the  war.  Fortunately  for  the 
Americans,  this  did  not  happen.  Washington  knew 
our  weakness  so  well  that  he  could  see  how  easy  it 
would  be  for  a  bold  and  determined  enemy  to  do  us 
great  if  not  fatal  harm.  But  he  did  not  know  that 
the  English  themselves  were  in  an  almost  desperate 
plight.  By  Rodney's  decisive  victory  at  sea  they  be 
gan  to  recover  their  ascendancy  against  the  Coalition, 
but  it  was  then  too  late  to  disavow  the  treaty.  In 
Parliament  George  III  had  been  defeated ;  the  defeat 
meaning  a  very  serious  check  to  the  policy  which  he 
had  pursued  for  more  than  twenty  years  to  fix  royal 
tyranny  on  the  British  people.  King  George's  system 
of  personal  government,  himself  being  the  person, 
had  broken  down  and  he  could  not  revive  it.  Nearly 
seventy  years  were  to  elapse  before  Queen  Victoria, 
who  was  as  putty  in  the  hands  of  her  German  hus 
band,  Prince  Albert,  rejoiced  that  he  had  restored 
the  personal  power  of  the  British  sovereign  to  a  pitch 
it  had  not  known  since  her  grandfather  George  III. 


154  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

The  American  Revolution  had  illustrated  the 
fatal  weakness  of  the  Congress  as  an  organ  of  govern 
ment,  and  the  Articles  merely  embodied  the  vague 
ness  of  the  American  people  in  regard  to  any  real 
regime.  The  Congress  has  been  much  derided  for  its 
shortcomings  and  its  blunders,  although  in  truth  not 
so  much  the  Congress,  as  those  who  made  it,  was  to 
blame.  They  had  refused,  in  their  timidity,  to  give 
it  power  to  exercise  control.  It  might  not  compel  or 
enforce  obedience.  It  did  require  General  Washing 
ton  during  the  war  to  furnish  a  regular  report  of  his 
military  actions  and  it  put  his  suggestions  on  file 
where  many  of  them  grew  yellow  and  dusty;  but  he 
might  not  strike,  do  that  decisive  act  by  which  his 
tory  is  born.  Their  timidity  made  them  see  what  he 
had  accomplished  not  nearly  so  plainly  as  the  dicta 
tor  on  horseback  whom  their  fears  conjured  up. 

During  the  war  the  sense  of  a  common  danger  had 
lent  the  Congress  a  not  easily  defined  but  quite  real 
coherence,  which  vanished  when  peace  came,  and  the 
local  ideals  of  the  States  took  precedence.  Take 
taxation.  Congress  could  compute  the  quota  of  taxes 
which  each  State  ought  to  pay,  but  it  had  no  way 
of  collecting  or  of  enforcing  payment.  It  took  eight 
een  months  to  collect  five  per  cent  of  the  taxes  laid 
in  1783.  Of  course  a  nation  could  not  go  on  with 
such  methods.  No  law  binding  all  the  States  could 


WELDING  THE  NATION  155 

be  adopted  unless  every  one  of  the  thirteen  States 
assented.  Unanimity  was  almost  unattainable;  as 
when  Governor  Clinton  of  New  York  withheld  his 
approval  of  a  measure  to  improve  a  system  of  taxa 
tion  to  which  the  other  twelve  States  had  assented; 
so  Rhode  Island,  the  smallest  of  all,  blocked  another 
reform  which  twelve  States  had  approved.  Our 
foreign  relations  must  be  described  as  ignominious. 
Jefferson  had  taken  Franklin's  place  as  Minister  to 
France,  but  we  had  no  credit  and  he  could  not  secure 
the  loan  he  was  seeking.  John  Adams  in  London, 
and  John  Jay  in  Madrid,  were  likewise  balked.  Jay 
had  to  submit  to  the  closing  of  the  lower  Mississippi 
to  American  shipping.  He  did  this  in  the  hope  of 
thereby  conciliating  Spain  to  make  a  commercial 
treaty  which  he  thought  was  far  more  important  than 
shipping.  Our  people  in  the  Southwest,  however,  re 
garded  the  closing  of  the  river  as  portending  their 
ruin,  and  they  threatened  to  secede  if  it  were  persisted 
in.  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey  threw  their  weight 
with  the  Southerners  and  Congress  voted  against 
the  Jay  treaty.  That  was  the  time  when  the  cor 
sairs  of  the  Barbary  States  preyed  upon  American 
shipping  in  the  Mediterranean  and  seized  crews  of 
our  vessels  and  sold  them  into  slavery  in  Northern 
Africa.  That  there  was  not  in  the  thirteen  States 
sufficient  feeling  of  dignity  to  resent  and  punish 


156  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

these  outrages  marks  both  their  dispersed  power  and 
lack  of  regard  for  National  honor. 

After  1783  the  States,  virtually  bankrupt  at  home, 
discordant,  fickle,  and  aimless,  and  without  credit  or 
prestige  abroad,  were  filled  with  many  citizens  who 
recognized  that  the  system  was  bad  and  must  be 
amended.  The  wise  among  them  wrote  treatises  on 
the  remedies  they  proposed.  The  wisest  went  to 
school  of  experience  and  sought  in  history  how  con 
federations  and  other  political  unions  had  fared. 
Washington  wrote  for  his  own  use  an  account  of  the 
classical  constitutions  of  Greece  and  Rome  and  of 
the  more  modern  states ;  of  the  Amphictyonic  Coun 
cil  among  the  ancient,  and  the  Helvetic,  Belgic,  and 
Germanic  among  the  more  recent.  John  Adams 
devoted  two  massive  volumes  to  an  account  of  the 
medieval  Italian  republics.  James  Madison  studied 
the  Achaian  League  and  other  ancient  combinations. 
There  were  many  other  men  less  eminent  than  these 
—  there  was  a  Peletiah  Webster,  for  instance. 

Washington  viewed  the  situation  as  a  pessimist. 
Was  it  because  the  high  hopes  that  he  had  held 
during  the  war,  that  America  should  be  the  noblest 
among  the  nations,  had  been  disappointed,  or  was 
it  because  he  saw  farther  into  the  future  than  his 
colleagues  saw?  On  May  18,  1786,  he  writes  inti 
mately  to  John  Jay: 


WELDING  THE  NATION  157 

.  .  .  We  are  certainly  in  a  delicate  situation;  but  my 
fear  is  that  the  people  are  not  yet  sufficiently  misled  to 
retract  from  error.  To  be  plainer,  I  think  there  is  more 
wickedness  than  ignorance  mixed  in  our  councils.  Un 
der  this  impression  I  scarcely  know  what  opinion  to 
entertain  of  a  general  convention.  That  it  is  necessary 
to  revise  and  amend  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  I 
entertain  no  doubt;  but  what  may  be  the  consequences 
of  such  an  attempt  is  doubtful.  Yet  something  must  be 
done,  or  the  fabric  must  fall,  for  it  certainly  is  tottering. 

Ignorance  and  design  are  difficult  to  combat.  Out  of 
these  proceed  illiberal  sentiments,  improper  jealousies, 
and  a  train  of  evils  which  oftentimes  in  republican  gov 
ernments  must  be  sorely  felt  before  they  can  be  re 
moved.  The  former,  that  is  ignorance,  being  a  fit  soil 
for  the  latter  to  work  in,  tools  are  employed  by  them 
which  a  generous  mind  would  disdain  to  use ;  and  which 
nothing  but  time,  and  their  own  puerile  or  wicked  pro 
ductions,  can  show  the  inefficacy  and  dangerous  tend 
ency  of.  I  think  often  of  our  situation,  and  view  it 
with  concern.  From  the  high  ground  we  stood  upon, 
from  the  plain  path  which  invited  our  footsteps,  to  be 
so  fallen!  so  lost!  it  is  really  mortifying.1 

One  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  discontents  which 
troubled  the  public  was  the  increasing  number  of 
persons  who  had  been  made  debtors  after  the  war 
by  the  more  and  more  pressing  demands  of  their 
creditors.  These  debtors  knew  nothing  about  eco 
nomics  ;  they  only  knew  that  they  were  being  crushed 
by  persons  more  lucky  than  themselves.  In  Massa 
chusetts  they  broke  out  in  actual  rebellion  named 
1  Ford,  xi,  31. 


158  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

after  the  man  who  led  it,  Daniel  Shays.  They  were 
put  down  by  the  more  or  less  doubtful  appeal  to 
veterans  of  the  National  Army,  but  their  ebullition 
was  not  forgotten  as  a  symptom  of  a  very  dangerous 
condition.  In  1786  representatives  from  five  States 
met  in  a  convention  at  Annapolis  to  consider  the 
hard  times  and  the  troubles  in  trade.  Washington, 
Hamilton,  and  Madison  were  thought  to  be  behind 
the  convention,  which  accomplished  little,  but  made 
it  clear  that  a  large  general  convention  ought  to 
meet  and  to  discuss  the  way  of  securing  a  strong 
central  government.  This  convention  was  discussed 
during  that  summer  and  autumn,  and  a  call  was 
issued  for  a  meeting  in  the  following  spring  at  Phila 
delphia.  Virginia  turned  first  to  Washington  to  be 
one  of  its  delegates,  but  he  had  sincere  scruples 
against  entering  public  life  again.  He  wrote  to 
James  Madison  on  November  iSth: 

Although  I  had  bid  adieu  to  the  public  walks  of  life 
in  a  public  manner,  and  had  resolved  never  more  to 
tread  upon  public  ground,  yet  if,  upon  an  occasion 
so  interesting  to  the  well-being  of  the  confederacy,  it 
should  have  appeared  to  have  been  the  wish  of  the  As 
sembly  to  have  employed  me  with  other  associates  in 
the  business  of  revising  the  federal  system,  I  should, 
from  a  sense  of  obligation  I  am  under  for  repeated  proof 
of  confidence  in  me,  more  than  from  any  opinion  I  should 
have  entertained  of  my  usefulness,  have  obeyed  its  call ; 
but  it  is  now  out  of  my  power  to  do  so  with  any  degree 
of  consistency.1 

1  Ford,  xi,  87. 


WELDING  THE  NATION  159 

Washington's  disinclination  to  abandon  the  quiet 
of  Mount  Vernon  and  the  congenial  work  he  found 
there,  and  to  be  plunged  again  into  political  labors, 
was  perhaps  his  strongest  reason  for  making  this  deci 
sion.  But  a  temporary  aggravation  ruled  him.  The 
Society  of  the  Cincinnati,  of  which  he  was  president, 
had  aroused  much  odium  in  the  country  among  those 
who  were  jealous  or  envious  that  such  a  special  privi 
leged  class  should  exist,  and  among  those  who  really 
believed  that  it  had  the  secret  design  of  establishing 
an  aristocracy  if  not  actually  a  monarchy.  Wash 
ington  held  that  its  original  avowed  purpose,  to  keep 
the  officers  who  had  served  in  the  Revolution  to 
gether,  would  perpetuate  the  patriotic  spirit  which 
enabled  them  to  win,  and  might  be  a  source  of 
strength  in  case  of  further  ordeals.  But  when  he 
found  that  public  sentiment  ran  so  strongly  against 
the  Cincinnati,  he  withdrew  as  its  president  and  he 
told  Madison  that  he  would  vote  to  have  the  Society 
disbanded  if  it  were  not  that  it  counted  a  minority 
of  foreign  members.  Stronger  than  a  desire  for  a 
private  life  and  for  the  ease  of  Mount  Vernon  was 
his  sense  of  duty  as  a  patriot;  so  that  when  this  was 
strongly  urged  upon  him  he  gave  way  and  con 
sented. 

Spring  came,  the  snows  melted  in  the  Northern 
States,  and  through  the  month  of  April  the  delegates 


160  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

to  this  Convention  started  from  their  homes  in  the 
North  and  in  the  South  for  Philadelphia.  The  first 
regular  session  was  held  on  May  25th,  although  some 
of  the  delegates  did  not  arrive  until  several  weeks 
later.  They  sat  in  Independence  Hall  in  the  same 
room  where,  eleven  years  before,  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  had  been  adopted  and  signed.  Of  the 
members  in  the  new  Convention,  George  Washing 
ton  was  easily  the  first.  His  commanding  figure,  tall 
and  straight  and  in  no  wise  impaired  by  eight  years' 
campaigns  and  hardships,  was  almost  the  first  to 
attract  the  attention  of  any  one  who  looked  upon 
that  assembly.  He  was  fifty-five  years  old.  Next  in 
reputation  was  the  patriarch,  Benjamin  Franklin, 
twenty-seven  years  his  senior,  shrewd,  wise,  poised, 
tart,  good-natured;  whose  prestige  was  thought  to 
be  sufficient  to  make  him  a  worthy  presiding  officer 
when  Washington  was  not  present.  James  Madison 
of  Virginia  was  among  the  young  men  of  the  Con 
vention,  being  only  thirty-six  years  old,  and  yet 
almost  at  the  top  of  them  all  in  constitutional  learn 
ing.  More  precocious  still  was  Alexander  Hamilton 
of  New  York,  who  was  only  thirty,  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  examples  of  a  statesman  who  developed 
very  early  and  whom  Death  cut  off  before  he  showed 
any  signs  of  a  decline.  One  figure  we  miss  —  that 
of  Thomas  Jefferson  of  Virginia,  tall  and  wiry  and 


WELDING  THE  NATION  161 

red-curled,  who  was  absent  in  Paris  as  Minister  to 
France. 

Massachusetts  sent  four  representatives,  impor 
tant  but  not  preeminent  —  Elbridge  Gerry,  Na 
thaniel  Gorham,  Rufus  King,  and  Caleb  Strong. 
New  York  had  only  two  besides  Hamilton;  Robert 
Yates  and  John  Lansing.  Pennsylvania  trusted 
most  to  Benjamin  Franklin,  but  she  sent  the  finan 
cier  of  the  Revolution,  Robert  Morris,  and  Gouver- 
neur  Morris;  and  with  them  went  Thomas  Mifflin, 
George  Clymer,  Thomas  Fitzsimmons,  Jared  Inger- 
soll,  James  Wilson  —  all  conspicuous  public  men  at 
the  time,  although  their  fame  is  bedraggled  or  quite 
faded  now.  Wilson  ranked  as  the  first  lawyer  of  the 
group.  Of  the  five  from  little  Delaware  sturdy  John 
Dickinson,  a  man  who  thought,  was  no  negligible 
quantity. 

Connecticut  also  had  as  spokesmen  two  strong 
individualities  —  Roger  Sherman  and  Oliver  Ells 
worth.  Maryland  spoke  through  James  McHenry 
and  Daniel  Carroll  and  three  others  of  greater  ob 
scurity.  Virginia  had  George  Washington,  President 
of  the  Convention,  and  James  Madison,  active,  re 
sourceful,  and  really  accomplishing;  and  in  addition 
to  these  two:  Edmund  Randolph,  the  Governor; 
George  Mason,  Washington's  hard-headed  and  dis 
creet  lawyer  friend;  John  Blair,  George  Wythe,  and 


1 62  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

James  McClurg.  From  South  Carolina  went  three 
unusual  orators,  John  Rutledge,  C.  C.  Pinckney  and 
Charles  Pinckney,  and  Pierce  Butler.  Georgia  named 
four  mediocre  but  useful  men. 

In  this  gathering  of  fifty-five  persons,  the  propor 
tion  between  those  who  were  preeminent  for  com 
mon  sense  and  those  who  were  remarkable  for  special 
knowledge  and  talents  was  very  fairly  kept.  Most 
of  them  had  had  experience  in  dealing  with  men 
either  in  local  government  offices  or  in  the  army. 
Socially,  they  came  almost  without  exception  from 
respectable  if  not  aristocratic  families.  Of  the  fifty- 
five,  twenty-nine  were  university  or  college  bred, 
their  universities  comprising  Oxford,  Glasgow,  and 
Edinburgh  besides  the  American  Harvard,  William 
and  Mary,  Yale,  Princeton,  and  Columbia.  The  two 
foremost  members,  Washington  and  Franklin,  were 
not  college  bred.  Among  the  fifty-five  we  do  not  find 
John  Adams  and  Thomas  Jefferson,  who,  as  I  have 
said,  were  in  Europe  on  official  business.  John  Jay 
also  was  lacking,  because,  as  it  appears,  the  Anti- 
Federalists  did  not  wish  him  to  represent  them  in 
the  Convention;  but  his  influence  permeated  it  and 
the  wider  public,  who  later  read  his  unsigned  articles 
in  "The  Federalist."  Samuel  Adams,  Patrick  Henry, 
and  Richard  Henry  Lee  stayed  at  home.  General 
Nathanael  Greene,  the  favorite  son  of  Rhode  Island, 


WELDING  THE  NATION  163 

would  have  been  at  the  Convention  but  for  his  un 
timely  death  a  few  weeks  before  the  preceding 
Christmas. 

Owing  to  delays  the  active  business  of  the  Con 
vention  halted,  although  for  at  least  a  fortnight  the 
members  who  had  come  promptly  carried  on  un 
official  discussions.  Washington,  being  chosen  Pres 
ident  without  a  competitor,  presided,  with  perhaps 
more  than  his  habitual  gravity  and  punctilio.  The 
members  took  their  work  very  seriously.  The  debates 
lasted  five  or  six  hours  a  day,  and,  as  they  were  con 
tinued  consecutively  until  the  autumn,  there  was 
ample  time  to  discuss  many  subjects.  The  Conven 
tion  adopted  strict  secrecy  as  its  rule,  so  that  its  pro 
ceedings  were  not  known  by  the  public  nor  was  any 
satisfactory  report  of  them  kept  and  published.  At 
the  time  there  was  objection  to  this  provision,  and 
now,  after  more  than  a  century  and  a  third,  we  must 
regret  that  we  can  never  know  many  points  in  re 
gard  to  the  actual  give  and  take  of  discussion  in  this 
the  most  fateful  of  all  assemblies.  But  from  Madi 
son's  memoranda  and  reminiscences  we  can  infer  a 
good  deal  as  to  what  went  on. 

The  wisdom  of  keeping  the  proceedings  secret  was 
fully  justified.  The  framers  of  the  Constitution 
knew  that  it  was  to  a  large  degree  a  new  experiment, 
that  it  would  be  subjected  to  all  kinds  of  criticism, 


1 64  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

but  that  it  must  be  judged  by  its  entirety  and  not  by 
its  parts;  and  that  therefore  it  must  be  presented 
entire.  At  the  outset  some  of  the  members,  fore 
seeing  opposition,  were  for  suggesting  palliatives 
and  for  sugar-coating.  Some  of  the  measures  they 
feared  might  excite  hostility.  To  these  suggestions 
Washington  made  a  brief  but  very  noble  remon 
strance  which  seemed  deeply  to  impress  his  hearers. 
And  no  one  could  question  that  it  gave  the  keynote 
on  which  he  hoped  to  maintain  the  business  of  the 
Convention.  "  It  is  too  probable  that  no  plan  we  pro 
pose  will  be  adopted,"  Washington  said  very  gravely. 
"  Perhaps  another  dreadful  conflict  is  to  be  sustained. 
If,  to  please  the  people,  we  offer  what  we  ourselves 
disapprove,  how  can  we  afterward  defend  our  work? 
Let  us  raise  a  standard  to  which  the  wise  and  hon 
est  can  repair;  the  event  is  in  the  hand  of  God."1 
Among  the  obstacles  which  seemed  very  serious — and 
many  believed  they  would  wreck  the  Convention  — 
was  the  question  of  slavery.  By  this  time  all  the 
northern  part  of  the  country  favored  its  abolition. 
Even  Virginia  was  on  that  side.  For  practical  plant 
ers  like  George  Washington  knew  that  it  was  the 
most  costly  and  least  productive  form  of  labor. 
They  opposed  it  on  economic  rather  than  moral 
grounds.  Farther  South,  however,  especially  in 
1  Fiske,  Critical  Period,  250. 


WELDING  THE  NATION  165 

South  Carolina  where  the  negroes  seemed  to  be  the 
only  kind  of  laborers  for  the  rice-fields,  and  in  those 
regions  where  they  harvested  the  cotton,  the  whites 
insisted  that  slavery  should  be  maintained.  The 
contest  seemed  likely  to  be  very  fierce  between  the 
disputants,  and  then,  with  true  Anglo-Saxon  instinct, 
they  sought  for  a  compromise.  The  South  had  re 
garded  slaves  as  chattels.  The  compromise  brought 
forward  by  Madison  consisted  in  agreeing  that  five 
slaves  should  count  in  population  as  three.  By  this 
curious  device  a  negro  was  equivalent  to  three  fifths 
of  a  white  man.  Such  a  compromise  was,  of  course, 
illogical,  leaving  the  question  whether  negroes  were 
chattels  or  human  beings  with  even  a  theoretical 
civil  character  undecided.  But  many  of  the  mem 
bers,  who  saw  the  illogic  quite  plainly,  voted  for  it, 
being  dazzled  if  not  seduced  by  the  thought  that  it 
was  a  compromise  which  would  stave  off  an  irrecon 
cilable  conflict  at  least  for  the  present;  so  Washing 
ton,  who  wished  the  abolition  of  slavery,  voted  for 
the  compromise  along  with  Charles  Cotesworth 
Pinckney,  the  South  Carolinian  who  regarded  slav 
ery  as  higher  than  any  of  the  Ten  Commandments. 
The  second  compromise  referred  to  the  slave 
trade,  which  was  particularly  defended  by  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia.  The  raising  of  rice  and  in 
digo  in  those  States  caused  an  increasing  death-rate 


1 66  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

among  the  slaves.  The  slave  trade,  which  brought 
many  kidnapped  slaves  from  Africa  to  those  States 
was  needed  to  replenish  the  number  of  slaves  who 
died.  Virginia  had  not  yet  become  an  important 
breeding-place  of  slaves  who  were  sold  to  planters 
farther  south.  The  members  of  the  Convention 
who  wished  to  put  an  end  to  this  hideous  traffic  pro 
posed  that  it  should  be  prohibited,  and  that  the  en 
forcement  of  the  prohibition  should  be  assigned  to 
the  General  Government.  Pinckney,  however,  keen 
to  defend  his  privileged  institution  and  the  special 
interests  of  his  State,  bluntly  informed  the  Con 
vention  that  if  they  voted  to  abolish  the  slave  trade, 
South  Carolina  would  regard  it  as  a  polite  way  of 
telling  her  that  she  was  not  wanted  in  the  new 
Union.  To  think  of  attempting  to  form  a  Union 
without  South  Carolina  amazed  them  all  and  made 
them  pliable.  Although  there  was  considerable  op 
position  to  giving  the  General  Government  control 
over  shipping,  this  provision  was  passed.  The 
Northerners  saw  in  it  the  germs  of  a  tariff  act  which 
would  benefit  their  manufacturers,  and  they  agreed 
that  the  slave  trade  should  not  be  interfered  with 
before  1808  and  that  no  export  tax  should  be  au 
thorized. 

The   third   compromise   affected   representation. 
The  Convention  had  already  voted  that  the  Con- 


WELDING  THE  NATION  167 

gress  should  consist  of  two  parts,  a  Senate  and  a 
House  of  Representatives.  By  a  really  clever  device 
each  State  sent  two  members  to  the  Senate,  thus 
equalizing  the  small  and  large  States  in  that  branch 
of  the  Government.  The  House,  on  the  other  hand, 
represented  the  People,  and  the  number  of  members 
elected  from  each  State  corresponded,  therefore,  to 
the  population. 

As  I  do  not  attempt  to  make  even  a  summary  of 
the  details  of  the  Convention,  I  /should  pass  over 
many  of  the  other  topics  which  it  considered,  often 
with  very  heated  discussion.  The  fundamental  prob 
lem  was  how  to  preserve  the  rights  of  the  States  and 
at  the  same  time  give  the  Central  Government  suf 
ficient  power.  By  devices  which  actually  worked, 
and  for  many  years  continued  to  work,  this  conflict 
was  smoothed  over,  although  sixty  years  later  the 
question  of  State  rights,  intertwined  with  that  of 
slavery,  nearly  split  the  Nation  in  the  War  of  Seces 
sion.  There  was  much  question  as  to  the  term  for 
which  the  President  should  be  elected  and  whether 
by  the  People  or  by  Congress.  Some  were  for  one,  two, 
three,  four,  ten,  and  even  fifteen  years.  Rufus  King, 
grown  sarcastic,  said:  "Better  call  it  twenty — it's 
the  average  reign  of  princes."  Alexander  Hamilton 
and  Gouverneur  Morris  stood  for  a  life  service  with 
provision  for  the  President's  removal  in  case  of  mal- 


1 68  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

feasance.  These  gentlemen,  in  spite  of  their  influence 
in  the  Convention,  stirred  up  a  deep-seated  enmity 
to  their  plan.  Few  instincts  were  more  general  than 
that  which  drew  back  from  any  arrangement  which 
might  embolden  the  monarchists  to  make  a  man 
President  for  a  ten  or  fifteen  years'  term  or  for  life. 
This  could  not  fail  to  encourage  those  who  wished 
for  the  equivalent  of  an  hereditary  prince.  The  Con 
vention  soon  made  it  evident  that  they  would  have 
none  but  a  short  term,  and  they  chose,  finally,  four 
years.  There  was  a  debate  over  the  question  of  his 
election;  should  he  be  chosen  directly  by  the  legis 
lature,  or  by  electors?  The  strong  men  —  Mason, 
Rutledge,  Roger  Sherman,  and  Strong  —  favored 
the  former;  stronger  men  —  Washington,  Madison, 
Gerry,  and  Gouverneur  Morris  —  favored  the  latter, 
and  it  prevailed.  Nevertheless,  the  Electoral  College 
thus  created  soon  became,  and  has  remained,  as  use 
less  as  a  vermiform  appendix. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  summer  the  Convention 
had  completed  its  first  draft  of  the  Constitution; 
then  they  handed  their  work  over  to  a  Committee  for 
Style  and  Arrangement,  composed  of  W.  S.  Johnson 
of  North  Carolina,  Hamilton,  Gouverneur  Morris^ 
Madison,  and  King.  Then,  on  September  iyth,  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  formally  pub 
lished.  This  document,  done  "by  the  Unanimous 


WELDING  THE  NATION  169 

Consent  of  the  States  present,"  was  sent  to  the  Gov 
ernor  or  Legislature  of  each  State  with  the  under 
standing  that  its  ratification  by  nine  States  would 
be  required  before  it  was  proclaimed  the  law  of  the 
land. 

In  his  diary  for  Monday,  the  seventeenth  of  Sep 
tember,  1787,  Washington  makes  this  entry: 

Met  in  Convention,  when  the  Constitution  received 
the  unanimous  consent  of  II  States  and  Colo.  Hamil 
ton's  from  New  York  [the  only  delegate  from  thence  in 
Convention],  and  was  subscribed  to  by  every  member 
present,  except  Governor  Randolph  and  Colo.  Mason 
from  Virginia,  &  Mr.  Gerry  from  Massachusetts. 

The  business  being  thus  closed,  the  members  ad 
journed  to  the  City  Tavern,  dined  together,  and  took  a 
cordial  leave  of  each  other.  After  which  I  returned  to 
my  lodgings,  did  some  business  with,  and  received  the 
papers  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Convention,  and  re 
tired  to  meditate  on  the  momentous  wk.  which  had  been 
executed,  after  not  less  than  five,  for  a  large  part  of  the 
time  six  and  sometimes  7  hours  sitting  every  day,  [ex 
cept]  Sundays  &  the  ten  days  adjournment  to  give  a 
Comee.  [Committee]  opportunity  &  time  to  arrange  the 
business  for  more  than  four  months.1 

One  likes  to  think  of  Washington  presiding  over 
that  Convention  for  more  than  four  months,  see 
ing  one  suggestion  after  another  brought  forward 
and  debated  until  finally  disposed  of,  he  saying 
little  except  to  enforce  the  rules  of  parliamentary 
1  Ford,  xi,  155. 


i?o  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

debate.  No  doubt  his  asides  (and  part  of  his  con 
versation)  frankly  gave  his  opinion  as  to  each  meas 
ure,  because  he  never  disguised  his  thoughts  and  he 
seems  to  have  voted  when  the  ballots  were  taken  — 
a  practice  unusual  to  modern  presiding  officers  ex 
cept  in  case  of  a  tie.  His  summing-up  of  the  Con 
stitution,  which  he  wrote  on  the  day  after  the  ad 
journment  in  a  hurried  letter  to  Lafayette,  is  given 
briefly  in  these  lines: 

It  is  the  result  of  four  months'  deliberation.  It  is  now 
a  child  of  fortune,  to  be  fostered  by  some  and  buffeted 
by  others.  What  will  be  the  general  opinion,  or  the  re 
ception  of  it,  is  not  for  me  to  decide;  nor  shall  I  say 
anything  for  or  against  it.  If  it  be  good,  I  suppose  it 
will  work  its  way;  if  bad,  it  will  recoil  on  the  framers. 

A  month  later,  in  the  seclusion  of  Mount  Vernon, 
he  spread  the  same  news  before  his  friend  General 
Knox: 

.  .  .  The  Constitution  is  now  before  the  judgment- 
seat.  It  has,  as  was  expected,  its  adversaries  and  sup 
porters.  Which  will  preponderate  is  £et  to  be  decided. 
The  former  more  than  probably  will  be  most  active,  as 
the  major  part  of  them  will,  it  is  to  be  feared,  be  gov 
erned  by  sinister  and  self-important  motives,  to  which 
everything  in  their  breasts  must  yield.  .  .  . 

The  other  class,  he  said,  would  probably  ask  itself 
whether  the  Constitution  now  submitted  was  not 
better  than  the  inadequate  and  precarious  govern 
ment  under  which  they  had  been  living.  If  there 


WELDING  THE  NATION  171 

were  defects,  as  doubtless  there  were,  did  it  not  pro 
vide  means  for  amending  them?  Then  he  concludes 
with  a  gleam  of  optimism : 

...  Is  it  not  likely  that  real  defects  will  be  as  readily 
discovered  after  as  before  trial?  and  will  not  our  suc 
cessors  be  as  ready  to  apply  the  remedy  as  ourselves,  if 
occasion  should  require  it?  To  think  otherwise  will,  in 
my  judgment,  be  ascribing  more  of  the  amor  patriae, 
more  wisdom  and  more  virtue  to  ourselves,  than  I 
think  we  deserve.1 

Nearly  five  months  later,  February  7,  1788,  he 
wrote  Lafayette  what  we  may  consider  a  more  delib 
erate  opinion: 

As  to  my  sentiments  with  respect  to  the  merits  of  the 
new  constitution,  I  will  disclose  them  without  reserve, 
(although  by  passing  through  the  post-office  they  should 
become  known  to  all  the  world,)  for  in  truth  I  have 
nothing  to  conceal  on  that  subject.  It  appears  to  me, 
then,  little  short  of  a  miracle,  that  the  delegates  from  so 
many  different  States  (which  States  you  know  are  also 
different  from  each  other),  in  their  manners,  circum 
stances,  and  prejudices,  should  unite  in  forming  a  sys 
tem  of  national  government,  so  little  liable  to  well- 
founded  objections.  Nor  am  I  yet  such  an  enthusiastic, 
partial,  or  indiscriminating  admirer  of  it,  as  not  to  per 
ceive  it  is  tinctured  with  some  real  (though  not  radical) 
defects.  The  limits  of  a  letter  would  not  suffer  me  to  go 
fully  into  an  examination  of  them;  nor  would  the  dis 
cussion  be  entertaining  or  profitable.  I  therefore  for 
bear  to  touch  upon  it.  With  regard  to  the  two  great 
points  (the  pivots  upon  which  the  whole  machine  must 
move),  my  creed  is  simply, 

1  Ford,  xi,  173. 


172  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

1st.  That  the  general  government  is  not  invested  with 
more  powers,  than  are  indispensably  necessary  to  per- 
from  the  functions  of  a  good  government;  and  conse 
quently,  that  no  objection  ought  to  be  made  against  the 
quantity  of  power  delegated  to  it. 

2nd.  That  these  powers  (as  the  appointment  of  all 
rulers  will  for  ever  arise  from,  and  at  short,  stated  inter 
vals  recur  to,  the  free  suffrage  of  the  people),  are  so  dis 
tributed  among  the  legislative,  executive,  and  judicial 
branches,  into  which  the  general  government  is  ar 
ranged,  that  it  can  never  be  in  danger  of  degenerating 
into  a  monarchy,  an  oligarchy,  an  aristocracy,  or  any 
other  despotic  or  oppressive  form,  so  long  as  there  shall 
remain  any  virtue  in  the  body  of  the  people. 

I  would  not  be  understood,  my  dear  Marquis,  to 
speak  of  consequences,  which  may  be  produced  in  the 
revolution  of  ages,  by  corruption  of  morals,  profligacy 
of  manners  and  listlessness  for  the  preservation  of  the 
natural  and  unalienable  rights  of  mankind,  nor  of  the 
successful  usurpations,  that  may  be  established  at  such 
an  unpropitious  juncture  upon  the  ruins  of  liberty,  how 
ever  providently  guarded  and  secured ;  as  these  are  con 
tingencies  against  which  no  human  prudence  can  effec 
tually  provide.  It  will  at  least  be  a  recommendation  to 
the  proposed  constitution,  that  it  is  provided  with  more 
checks  and  barriers  against  the  introduction  of  tyranny, 
and  those  of  a  nature  less  liable  to  be  surmounted,  than 
any  government  hitherto  instituted  among  mortals  hath 
possessed.  We  are  not  to  expect  perfection  in  this  world ; 
but  mankind,  in  modern  times,  have  apparently  made 
some  progress  in  the  science  of  government.  Should 
that  which  is  now  offered  to  the  people  of  America,  be 
found  on  experiment  less  perfect  than  it  can  be  made, 
a  constitutional  door  is  left  open  for  its  amelioration.1 

1  Ford,  xi,  218-21. 


WELDING  THE  NATION  173 

Thus  was  accomplished  the  American  Constitu 
tion.  Gladstone  has  said  of  it  in  well-known  words 
that,  just  "as  the  British  Constitution  is  the  most 
subtle  organism  which  has  proceeded  from  the  womb 
and  the  long  gestation  of  progressive  history,  so  the 
American  Constitution  is  so  far  as  I  can  see  the  most 
wonderful  work  ever  struck  off  at  a  given  time  by 
the  brain  and  purpose  of  man."  1  Note  that  Glad 
stone  does  not  name  a  single  or  an  individual  man, 
which  would  have  been  wholly  untrue,  for  the  Amer 
ican  Constitution  was  struck  off  by  the  wisdom  and 
foresight  of  fifty-five  men  collectively.  There  were 
among  them  two  or  three  who  might  be  called  tran 
scendent  men.  It  gained  its  peculiar  value  from  the 
fact  that  it  represents  the  composite  of  many  diver 
gent  opinions  and  different  characters. 

Just  before  the  members  broke  up  at  their  final 
meeting  in  Independence  Hall,  Benjamin  Franklin 
amused  them  with  a  characteristic  bit  of  raillery. 
On  the  back  of  the  President's  black  chair,  a  half  sun 
was  carved  and  emblazoned.  "  During  all  these 
weeks,"  said  Franklin,  "I  have  often  wondered 
whether  that  sun  was  rising  or  setting.  I  know  now 
that  it  is  a  rising  sun." 

The  first  State  to  ratify  the  Constitution  was 
Delaware,  on  December  6,  1787.  Pennsylvania  fol- 

1  W.  E.  Gladstone,  North  American  Review,  September,  1878. 


174  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

lowed  on  December  I2th,  and  New  Jersey  on  Decem 
ber  1 8th.  Ratifications  continued  without  haste  until 
New  Hampshire,  the  ninth  State,  signed  on  June  21, 
1788.  Four  days  later,  Virginia,  a  very  important 
State,  ratified.  New  York,  which  had  been  Anti- 
Federalist  throughout,  joined  the  majority  on  July 
26th.  North  Carolina  waited  until  November  2ist, 
and  little  Rhode  Island,  the  last  State  of  all,  did  not 
come  in  until  May  29,  1790.  But,  as  the  adherence 
of  nine  States  sufficed,  the  affirmative  action  of  New 
Hampshire  on  June  21,  1788,  constituted  the  legal 
beginning  of  the  United  States  of  America. 

No  test  could  be  more  winnowing  than  that  to 
which  the  Constitution  was  subjected  during  more 
than  eighteen  months  before  its  adoption.  In  each 
State,  in  each  section,  its  friends  and  enemies  dis 
cussed  it  at  meetings  and  in  private  gatherings.  In 
New  York,  for  instance,  it  was  only  the  persistence  of 
Alexander  Hamilton  and  his  unfailing  oratoiy,  un 
matched  until  then  in  this  country,  that  routed  the 
Anti-Federalists  at  Poughkeepsie  and  caused  the 
victory  of  the  Federalists  in  the  State.  In  Virginia, 
Patrick  Henry,  who  had  said  on  the  eve  of  the  Rev 
olution,  "I  am  not  a  Virginian,  but  an  American," 
still  held  out.  Nevertheless,  the  more  the  people  of 
the  country  discussed  the  matter,  the  surer  was  their 
conviction  that  Washington  was  right  when  he  in- 


WELDING  THE  NATION  175 

timated  that  they  must  prefer  the  new  Constitution 
unless  they  could  show  reason  for  supposing  that  the 
anarchy  towards  which  the  old  order  was  swiftly 
driving  them  was  preferable. 

During  the  autumn  of  1788  peaceful  electioneering 
went  on  throughout  the  country.  Among  the  last 
acts  of  that  thin  wraith,  the  Continental  Congress, 
was  a  decree  that  Presidential  Electors  should  be 
chosen  on  the  first  Wednesday  of  January,  1789; 
that  they  should  vote  for  President  on  the  first 
Wednesday  in  February,  and  that  the  new  Congress 
should  meet  on  the  first  Wednesday  in  March.  The 
State  of  New  York,  where  Anti-Federalists  swarmed, 
did  not  follow  the  decree  —  with  the  result  that 
that  State,  which  had  been  behindhand  in  signing 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  failed  through  the 
intrigues  of  the  Anti-Federalists  to  choose  electors, 
and  so  had  no  part  in  the  choice  of  Washington  as 
President  of  the  United  States.  The  other  ten  States 
performed  their  duty  on  time.  They  elected  Wash 
ington  President  by  a  unanimous  vote  of  sixty-nine 
out  of  sixty-nine  votes  cast. 

The  Vice-Presidential  contest  was  perplexing, 
there  being  many  candidates  who  received  only  a 
few  votes  each.  Many  persons  thought  that  it  would 
be  fitting  that  Samuel  Adams,  the  father  of  the  Rev 
olution,  should  be  chosen  to  serve  with  Washington, 


i;6  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

the  father  of  his  country;  but  too  many  remembered 
that  he  had  been  hostile  to  the  Federalists  until  al 
most  the  end  of  the  preliminary  canvass  and  so  they 
did  not  think  that  he  ought  to  be  chosen.  The  suc 
cessful  man  was  John  Adams,  who  had  been  a  robust 
Patriot  from  the  beginning  and  had  served  honor 
ably  and  devotedly  in  every  position  which  he  had 
held  since  1775. 

On  April  I4th  Washington's  election  was  notified 
to  him,  and  on  the  i6th  he  bade  farewell  to  Mount 
Vernon,  where  he  had  hoped  to  pass  the  rest  of  his 
days  in  peace  and  home  duties  and  agriculture,  and 
he  rode  in  what  proved  to  be  a  triumphal  march  to 
New  York.  That  city  was  chosen  the  capital  of  the 
new  Nation.  Streams  of  enthusiastic  and  joyous 
citizens  met  and  acclaimed  him  at  every  town 
through  which  he  passed.  At  Trenton  a  party  of 
thirteen  young  girls  decked  out  in  muslin  and 
wreaths  represented  the  thirteen  States,  and  per 
haps  brought  to  his  mind  the  contrast  between  that 
day  and  thirteen  years  before  when  he  crossed  the 
Delaware  on  boats  amid  floating  cakes  of  ice  and  the 
pelting  of  sleet  and  rain.  On  April  23d  he  entered 
New  York  City.  A  week  later  at  noon  a  military 
escort  attended  him  from  his  lodging  to  Federal  Hall 
at  the  corner  of  Wall  and  Nassau  Streets,  where  a 
vast  crowd  awaited  him.  Washington  stood  on  a 


WELDING  THE  NATION  177 

balcony.  All  could  witness  the  ceremony.  The  Sec 
retary  of  the  Senate  bore  a  Bible  upon  a  velvet  cush 
ion,  and  Chancellor  Livingston  administered  the 
oath  of  office.  Washington's  head  was  still  bowed 
when  Livingston  shouted:  "Long  live  George  Wash 
ington,  President  of  the  United  States! "  The  crowds 
took  up  the  cheer,  which  spread  to  many  parts  of  the 
city  and  was  repeated  in  all  parts  of  the  United 
States. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT 

THE  inauguration  of  Washington  on  April  30, 
1789,  brought  a  new  type  of  administration  into 
the  world.  The  democracy  which  it  initiated  was  very 
different  from  that  of  antiquity,  from  the  models  of 
Greece  and  of  Rome,  and  quite  different  from  that 
of  the  Italian  republics  during  the  Middle  Age.  The 
head  of  the  new  State  differed  essentially  from  the 
monarchs  across  the  sea.  Although  there  were  va 
rieties  of  traditions  and  customs  in  what  had  been 
the  Colonies,  still  their  dominant  characteristic  was 
British.  According  to  the  social  traditions  of  Vir 
ginia,  George  Washington  was  an  aristocrat,  but  in 
contrast  with  the  British,  he  was  a  democrat. 

He  believed,  however,  that  the  President  must 
guard  his  office  from  the  free-and-easy  want  of  deco 
rum  which  some  of  his  countrymen  regarded  as  the 
stamp  of  democracy.  At  his  receptions  he  wore  a 
black  velvet  suit  with  gold  buckles  at  the  knee  and 
on  his  shoes,  and  yellow  gloves,  and  profusely  pow 
dered  hair  carried  in  a  silk  bag  behind.  In  one  hand 
he  held  a  cocked  hat  with  an  ostrich  plume;  on  his 
left  thigh  he  wore  a  sword  in  a  white  scabbard 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT    179 

of  polished  leather.  He  shook  hands  with  no  one; 
but  acknowledged  the  courtesy  of  his  visitors  by  a 
very  formal  bow.  When  he  drove,  it  was  in  a  coach 
with  four  or  six  handsome  horses  and  outriders  and 
lackeys  dressed  in  resplendent  livery. 

After  his  inauguration  he  spoke  his  address  to  the 
Congress,  and  several  days  later  members  of  the 
House  and  of  the  Senate  called  on  him  at  his  resi 
dence  and  made  formal  replies  to  his  Inaugural 
Address.  After  a  few  weeks,  experience  led  him  to 
modify  somewhat  his  daily  schedule.  He  found  that 
unless  it  was  checked,  the  insatiate  public  would 
consume  all  his  time.  Every  Tuesday  afternoon,  be 
tween  three  and  four  o'clock,  he  had  a  public  recep 
tion  which  any  one  might  attend.  Likewise,  on 
Friday  afternoons,  Mrs.  Washington  had  receptions 
of  her  own.  The  President  accepted  no  invitations 
to  dinner,  but  at  his  own  table  there  was  an  unend 
ing  succession  of  invited  guests,  except  on  Sunday, 
which  he  observed  privately.  Interviews  with  the 
President  could  be  had  at  any  time  that  suited  his 
convenience.  Thus  did  he  arrange  to  transact  his 
regular  or  his  private  business. 

Inevitably,  some  of  the  public  objected  to  his 
rules  and  pretended  to  see  very  strong  monarchical 
leanings  in  them.  But  the  country  took  them  as  he 
intended,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  felt  the 


i8o  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

benefit  of  his  promoting  the  dignity  of  his  office. 
Equally  beneficial  was  his  rule  of  not  appointing  to 
any  office  any  man  merely  because  he  was  the  Pres 
ident's  friend.  Washington  knew  that  such  a  con 
sideration  would  give  the  candidate  an  unfair  advan 
tage.  He  knew  further  that  office-holders  who  could 
screen  themselves  behind  the  plea  that  they  were 
the  President's  friends  might  be  very  embarrassing 
to  him.  As  office-seekers  became,  with  the  develop 
ment  of  the  Republic,  among  the  most  pernicious  of 
its  evils  and  of  its  infamies,  we  can  but  feel  grateful 
that  so  far  as  in  him  lay  Washington  tried  to  keep 
them  within  bounds. 

In  all  his  official  acts  he  took  great  pains  not  to 
force  his  personal  wishes.  He  knew  that  both  in 
prestige  and  popularity  he  held  a  place  apart  among 
his  countrymen,  and  for  this  reason  he  did  not  wish 
to  have  measures  passed  simply  because  they  were 
his.  Accordingly,  in  the  matter  of  receiving  the  pub 
lic  and  in  granting  interviews  and  of  ceremonials  at 
the  Presidential  Residence,  he  asked  the  advice  of 
John  Adams,  John  Jay,  Hamilton,  and  Jefferson, 
and  he  listened  to  many  of  their  suggestions.  Colo 
nel  Humphreys,  who  had  been  one  of  his  aides-de- 
camp  and  was  staying  in  the  Presidential  Residence, 
acted  as  Chamberlain  at  the  first  reception.  Hum 
phreys  took  an  almost  childish  delight  in  gold  braid 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT     181 

and  flummery.  At  a  given  moment  the  door  of  the 
large  hall  in  which  the  concourse  of  guests  was  as 
sembled  was  opened  and  he,  advancing,  shouted, 
with  a  loud  voice:  "The  President  of  the  United 
States!"  Washington  followed  him  and  went 
through  the  paces  prescribed  by  the  Colonel  with 
punctilious  exactness,  but  with  evident  lack  of  rel 
ish.  When  the  levee  broke  up  and  the  party  had 
gone,  Washington  said  to  Colonel  Humphreys: 
"Well,  you  have  taken  me  in  once,  but,  by  God, 
you  shall  never  take  me  in  a  second  time."1  Irving, 
who  borrows  this  story  from  Jefferson,  warns  us  that 
perhaps  Jefferson  was  not  a  credible  witness. 

Congress  transacted  much  important  business  at 
this  first  session.  It  determined  that  the  President 
should  have  a  Cabinet  of  men  whose  business  it  was 
to  administer  the  chief  departments  and  to  advise 
the  President.  Next  in  importance  were  the  finan 
cial  measures  proposed  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury.  Washington  chose  for  his  first  Cabinet 
Ministers:  Thomas  Jefferson,  who  had  not  returned 
from  Paris,  as  Secretary  of  State,  or  Foreign  Minis 
ter  as  he  was  first  called;  Alexander  Hamilton,  Sec 
retary  of  the  Treasury;  General  Henry  Knox,  Secre 
tary  of  War;  and  Edmund  Randolph,  Attorney- 
General.  Of  these,  Hamilton  had  to  face  the  most 

1  Irving,  v,  14. 


1 82  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

bitter  opposition.  Throughout  the  Revolution  the 
former  Colonies  had  never  been  able  to  collect  enough 
money  to  pay  the  expense  of  the  war  and  the  other 
charges  of  the  Confederation.  The  Confederation 
handed  over  a  considerable  debt  to  the  new  Govern 
ment.  Besides  this  many  of  the  States  had  paid  each 
its  own  cost  of  equipping  and  maintaining  its  con 
tingent.  Hamilton  now  proposed  that  the  United 
States  Government  should  assume  these  various 
State  debts,  which  would  aggregate  $21,000,000  and 
bring  the  National  debt  to  a  total  of  $75,000,000. 
Hamilton's  suggestion  that  the  State  debts  be  as 
sumed  caused  a  vehement  outcry.  Its  opponents 
protested  that  no  fair  adjustment  could  be  reached. 
The  Assumptionists  retorted  that  this  would  be 
the  only  fair  settlement,  but  the  Anti-Assumption- 
ists  voted  them  down  by  a  majority  of  two.  In  other 
respects,  Hamilton's  financial  measures  prospered, 
and  before  many  months  he  seized  the  opportunity 
of  making  a  bargain  by  which  the  next  Congress 
reversed  its  vote  on  Assumption.  In  less  than  a  year 
the  members  of  Congress  and  many  of  the  public  had 
reached  the  conclusion  that  New  York  City  was  not 
the  best  place  to  be  the  capital  of  the  Nation.  The 
men  from  the  South  argued  that  it  put  the  South  to 
a  disadvantage,  as  its  ease  of  access  to  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  and  the  Eastern  States  gave  that  sec- 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT     183 

tion  of  the  country  a  too  favorable  situation.  There 
was  a  strong  party  in  favor  of  Philadelphia,  but  it 
was  remembered  that  in  the  days  of  the  Confedera 
tion  a  gang  of  turbulent  soldiers  had  dashed  down 
from  Lancaster  and  put  to  flight  the  Convention  sit 
ting  at  Philadelphia.  Nevertheless,  Philadelphia  was 
chosen  temporarily,  the  ultimate  choice  of  a  situation 
being  farther  south  on  the  Potomac. 

Jefferson  returned  from  France  in  the  early  win 
ter.  The  discussion  over  Assumption  was  going  on 
very  virulently.  It  happened  that  one  day  Jefferson 
met  Hamilton,  and  this  is  his  account  of  what 
followed : 

As  I  was  going  to  the  President's  one  day,  I  met  him 
[Hamilton]  in  the  street.  He  walked  me  backwards  and 
forwards  before  the  President's  door  for  half  an  hour. 
He  painted  pathetically  the  temper  into  which  the  leg 
islature  had  been  wrought;  the  disgust  of  those  who 
were  called  the  creditor  States ;  the  danger  of  the  seces 
sion  of  their  members,  and  the  separation  of  the  States. 
He  observed  that  the  members  of  the  administration 
ought  to  act  in  concert;  that  though  this  question  was 
not  of  my  department,  yet  a  common  duty  should  make 
it  a  common  concern ;  that  the  President  was  the  centre 
on  which  all  administrative  questions  ultimately  rested, 
and  that  all  of  us  should  rally  around  him  and  support, 
with  joint  efforts,  measures  approved  by  him;  and  that 
the  question  having  been  lost  by  a  small  majority  only, 
it  was  probable  that  an  appeal  from  me  to  the  judgment 
and  discretion  of  some  of  my  friends,  might  effect  a 
change  in  the  vote,  and  the  machine  of  government, 


1 84  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

now  suspended,  might  be  again  set  into  motion.  I  told 
him  that  I  was  really  a  stranger  to  the  whole  subject, 
that  not  having  yet  informed  myself  of  the  system  of 
finance  adopted,  I  knew  not  how  far  this  was  a  neces 
sary  sequence;  that  undoubtedly,  if  its  rejection  endan 
gered  a  dissolution  of  our  Union  at  this  incipient  stage, 
I  should  deem  it  most  unfortunate  of  all  consequences 
to  avert  which  all  partial  and  temporary  evils  should  be 
yielded.  I  proposed  to  him,  however,  to  dine  with  me 
the  next  day,  and  I  would  invite  another  friend  or  two, 
bring  them  into  conference  together,  and  I  thought  it 
impossible  that  reasonable  men,  consulting  together 
coolly,  could  fail,  by  some  mutual  sacrifices  of  opinion, 
to  form  a  compromise  which  was  to  save  the  Union. 
The  discussion  took  place.  I  could  take  no  part  in  it 
but  an  exhortatory  one,  because  I  was  a  stranger  to  the 
circumstances  which  should  govern  it.  But  it  was  finally 
agreed,  that  whatever  importance  had  been  attached  to 
the  rejection  of  this  proposition,  the  preservation  of  the 
Union  and  of  concord  among  the  States  was  more  impor 
tant,  and  that,  therefore,  it  would  be  better  that  the 
vote  of  rejection  should  be  rescinded,  to  effect  which 
some  members  should  change  their  votes.  But  it  was 
observed  that  this  pill  would  be  peculiarly  bitter  to  the 
Southern  States,  and  that  some  concomitant  measure 
should  be  adopted  to  sweeten  it  a  little  to  them.  There 
had  before  been  projects  to  fix  the  seat  of  government 
either  at  Philadelphia  or  at  Georgetown  on  the  Poto 
mac;  and  it  was  thought  that,  by  giving  it  to  Philadel 
phia  for  ten  years,  and  to  Georgetown  permanently 
afterwards,  this  might,  as  an  anodyne,  solve  in  some 
degree  the  ferment  which  might  be  excited  by  the  other 
measure  alone.  So  two  of  the  Potomac  members  (White 
and  Lee,  but  White  with  a  revulsion  of  stomach  almost 
convulsive)  agreed  to  change  their  votes,  and  Hamilton 
undertook  to  carry  the  other  point.  In  doing  this,  the 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT     185 

influence  he  had  established  over  the  eastern  members, 
with  the  agency  of  Robert  Morris  with  those  of  the 
Middle  States,  effected  his  side  of  the  engagement.1 

As  a  result  of  Hamilton's  bargain,  the  bill  for 
Assumption  was  passed,  and  it  was  agreed  that 
Philadelphia  should  be  the  capital  for  ten  years  and 
that  afterwards  a  new  city  should  be  built  on  the 
banks  of  the  Potomac  and  made  the  capital  per 
manently. 

During  the  summer  of  1789  Washington  suffered 
the  most  serious  sickness  of  his  entire  life.  The  cause 
was  anthrax  in  his  thigh,  and  at  times  it  seemed  that 
it  would  prove  fatal.  For  many  weeks  he  was  forced 
to  lie  on  one  side,  with  frequent  paroxysms  of  great 
pain.  After  a  month  and  a  half  he  began  to  mend, 
but  very  slowly,  so  that  autumn  came  before  he 
got  up  and  could  go  about  again.  His  medical  ad 
viser  was  Dr.  Samuel  Bard  of  New  York,  and  Irving 
reports  the  following  characteristic  conversation  be 
tween  him  and  his  patient:  "Do  not  flatter  me  with 
vain  hopes,"  said  Washington,  with  placid  firmness; 
"I  am  not  afraid  to  die,  and  therefore  can  bear  the 
worst."  The  doctor  expressed  hope,  but  owned  that 
he  had  apprehensions.  "Whether  to-night  or  twenty 
years  hence,  makes  no  difference,"  observed  Wash- 

1  Jefferson's  Works,  ix,  93. 


1 86  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

ington.  "I  know  that  I  am  in  the  hands  of  a  good 
Providence."  1  His  friends  thought  that  he  never 
really  recovered  his  old-time  vigor.  That  autumn, 
as  soon  as  Congress  had  adjourned,  he  took  a  jour 
ney  through  New  England,  going  as  far  as  Ports 
mouth  and  returning  in  time  for  the  opening  of  the 
Second  Congress. 

The  Government  was  now  settling  down  into  what 
became  its  normal  routine.  The  Cabinet  was  com 
pleted  by  the  appointment  of  Jefferson  as  Secre 
tary  of  State  and  Edmund  Randolph  as  Attorney- 
General.  Jefferson  would  have  preferred  to  go  back 
to  France  as  American  Minister,  but  in  a  fulsome 
letter  he  declared  himself  willing  to  accept  any 
office  which  Washington  wished  him  to  fill.  The 
Supreme  Court  was  organized  with  John  Jay  as 
Chief  Justice,  and  five  Associate  Justices.  Washing 
ton  could  not  fail  to  be  aware  that  parties  were  be 
ginning  to  shape  themselves.  At  first  the  natural 
divisions  consisted  of  the  Federalists,  who  believed 
in  adopting  the  Constitution,  and  those  who  did  not. 
As  soon  as  the  thirteen  States  voted  to  accept  the 
Constitution,  the  Anti-Federalists  had  no  definite 
motive  for  existing.  Their  place  was  taken  princi 
pally  by  the  Republicans  over  against  whom  were 
the  Democrats.  A  few  years  later  these  parties  ex- 

1  Irving,  v,  22. 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT     187 

changed  names.  A  fundamental  difference  in  the 
ideas  of  the  Americans  sprang  from  their  views  in 
regard  to  National  and  State  rights.  Some  of  them 
regarded  the  State  as  the  ultimate  unit.  Others  in 
sisted  that  the  Nation  was  sovereign.  These  two 
conflicting  views  run  through  American  history 
down  to  the  Civil  War,  and  even  in  Washington's 
time  they  existed  in  outline.  Washington  himself 
was  a  Federalist,  believing  that  the  Federation  of 
the  former  Colonies  should  be  made  as  compact  and 
strongly  knit  as  possible.  He  had  had  too  much 
evidence  during  the  Revolution  of  the  weakness  of 
uncentralized  government,  and  yet  his  Virginia  ori 
gin  and  training  had  planted  in  him  a  strong  sym 
pathy  for  State  rights.  In  Washington's  own  Cabi 
net  dwelt  side  by  side  the  leaders  of  the  two  parties: 
Thomas  Jefferson,  the  Secretary  of  State,  though 
born  in  Virginia  of  high  aristocratic  stock,  was  the 
most  aggressive  and  infatuated  of  Democrats.  Alex 
ander  Hamilton,  born  in  the  West  Indies  and  owing 
nothing  to  family  connections,  was  a  natural  aristo 
crat.  He  believed  that  the  educated  and  compe 
tent  few  must  inevitably  govern  the  incompetent 
masses.  His  enemies  suspected  that  he  leaned 
strongly  towards  monarchy  and  would  have  been 
glad  to  see  Washington  crowned  king. 

President  Washington,  believing  in  Assumption, 


188  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

took  satisfaction  in  Hamilton's  bargain  with  Jeffer 
son  which  made  Assumption  possible.  For  the  Presi 
dent  saw  in  the  act  a  power  making  for  union,  and 
union  was  one  of  the  chief  objects  of  his  concern. 
The  foremost  of  Hamilton's  measures,  however,  for 
good  or  for  ill,  was  the  protective  tariff  on  foreign 
imports.  Experience  has  shown  that  protection  has 
been  much  more  than  a  financial  device.  It  has  been 
deeply  and  inextricably  moral.  It  has  caused  many 
American  citizens  to  seek  for  tariff  favors  from  the 
Government.  Compared  with  later  rates,  those  which 
Hamilton's  tariff  set  were  moderate  indeed.  The 
highest  duties  it  exacted  on  foreign  imports  were  fif 
teen  per  cent,  while  the  average  was  only  eight  and  a 
half  per  cent.  And  yet  it  had  not  been  long  in  force 
when  the  Government  was  receiving  $200,000  a 
month,  which  enabled  it  to  defray  all  the  necessary 
public  charges.  Hamilton,  in  the  words  of  Daniel 
Webster,  "smote  the  rock  of  National  resources  and 
copious  streams  of  wealth  poured  forth.  He  touched 
the  dead  corpse  of  public  credit  and  it  stood  forth 
erect  with  life."  The  United  States  of  all  modern 
countries  have  been  the  best  fitted  by  their  natural 
resources  to  do  without  artificial  stimulation,  in 
spite  of  which  fact  they  still  cling,  after  one  hundred 
and  thirty-five  years,  to  the  easy  and  plausible 
tariff  makeshift.  Washington  himself  believed  that 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT     189 

the  tariff  should  so  promote  industries  as  to  pro 
vide  for  whatever  the  country  needed  in  time  of  war. 

Two  other  financial  measures  are  to  be  credited  to 
Hamilton.  The  first  was  the  excise,  an  internal  rev 
enue  on  distilled  spirits.  It  met  with  opposition 
from  the  advocates  of  State  rights,  but  was  passed 
after  heated  debate.  The  last  was  the  establish 
ment  of  a  United  States  Bank.  All  of  Hamilton's 
measures  tended  directly  to  centralization,  the  ob 
ject  which  he  and  Washington  regarded  as  para 
mount. 

In  1790  Washington  made  a  second  trip  through 
the  Eastern  States,  taking  pains  to  visit  Rhode 
Island,  which  was  the  last  State  to  ratify  the  Con 
stitution  (May  29,  1790).  These  trips  of  his,  for 
which  the  hostile  might  have  found  parallels  in  the 
royal  progresses  of  the  British  sovereigns,  really 
served  a  good  purpose;  for  they  enabled  the  people 
to  see  and  hear  their  President;  which  had  a  good 
effect  in  a  newly  established  nation.  Washington  lost 
no  opportunity  for  teaching  a  moral.  Thus,  when 
he  came  to  Boston,  John  Hancock,  the  Governor  of 
Massachusetts,  seemed  to  wish  to  indicate  that  the 
Governor  was  the  highest  personage  in  the  State 
and  not  at  all  subservient  even  to  the  President  of 
the  United  States.  He  wished  to  arrange  it  so  that 
Washington  should  call  on  him  first,  but  this  Wash- 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

ington  had  no  idea  of  doing.  Hancock  then  wrote 
and  apologized  for  not  greeting  the  President  owing 
to  an  unfortunate  indisposition.  Washington  replied 
regretting  the  Governor's  illness  and  announcing 
that  the  schedule  on  which  he  was  travelling  required 
him  to  quit  Boston  at  a  given  time.  Governor  Han 
cock,  whose  spectacular  signature  had  given  him 
prominence  everywhere,  finding  that  he  could  not 
make  the  President  budge,  sent  word  that  he  was 
coming  to  pay  his  respects.  Washington  replied  that 
he  should  be  much  pleased  to  welcome  him,  but 
expressed  anxiety  lest  the  Governor  might  increase 
his  indisposition  by  coming  out.  This  little  comedy 
had  a  far-reaching  effect.  It  settled  the  question  as 
to  whether  the  Governor  of  a  State  or  the  President 
of  the  United  States  should  take  precedence.  From 
that  day  to  this,  no  Governor,  so  far  as  I  am  aware, 
has  set  himself  above  the  President  in  matters  of 
ceremonial. 

One  of  the  earliest  difficulties  which  Washington's 
administration  had  to  overcome  was  the  hostility  of 
the  Indians.  Indian  discontent  and  even  lawlessness 
had  been  going  on  for  years,  with  only  a  desultory 
and  ineffectual  show  of  vigor  on  the  part  of  the 
whites.  Washington,  who  detested  whatever  was 
ineffectual  and  lacking  in  purpose,  determined  to 
beat  down  the  Indians  into  submission.  He  sent  out  a 


• 


THE  "  GOODHUE  PORTRAIT  "  OF  WASHINGTON 
1790 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT     191 

first  army  under  General  St.  Clair,  but  it  was  taken 
in  ambush  by  the  Indians  and  nearly  wiped  out  —  a 
disaster  which  caused  almost  a  panic  throughout 
the  Western  country.  Washington  felt  the  losses 
deeply,  but  he  had  no  intention  of  being  beaten 
there.  He  organized  a  second  army,  gave  it  to  Gen 
eral  Wayne  to  command,  who  finally  brought  the 
Six  Nations  to  terms.  The  Indians  in  the  South  still 
remained  unpacified  and  lawless. 

Washington  made  another  prolonged  trip,  this 
time  through  the  Southern  States,  which  greatly 
improved  his  health  and  gave  an  opportunity  of 
seeing  many  of  the  public  men,  and  enabled  the 
population  to  greet  for  the  first  time  their  President. 
Meanwhile  the  seeds  of  partisan  feuds  grew  apace, 
as  they  could  not  fail  to  do  where  two  of  the  ablest 
politicians  ever  known  in  the  United  States  sat  in 
the  same  Cabinet  and  pursued  with  unremitting 
energy  ideas  that  were  mutually  uncompromising. 
Thomas  Jefferson,  although  born  of  the  old  aristo 
cratic  stock  of  Virginia,  had  early  announced  him 
self  a  Democrat,  and  had  led  that  faction  through 
out  the  Revolution.  His  facile  and  fiery  mind  gave 
to  the  Declaration  of  Independence  an  irresistible 
appeal,  and  it  still  remains  after  nearly  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years  one  of  the  most  contagious  documents 
ever  drawn  up.  Going  to  France  at  the  outbreak  of 


192  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

the  French  Revolution,  he  found  the  French  nation 
about  to  put  into  practice  the  principles  on  which  he 
had  long  fed  his  imagination  —  principles  which  he 
accepted  without  qualification  and  without  scruple. 
Returning  to  America  after  the  organization  of  the 
Government,  he  accepted  with  evident  reluctance 
the  position  of  Secretary  of  State  which  Washington 
offered  to  him.  In  the  Cabinet  his  chief  adversary 
or  competitor  was  Alexander  Hamilton,  his  junior 
by  fourteen  years,  a  man  equally  versatile  and 
equally  facile  —  and  still  more  enthralling  as  an 
orator.  Hamilton  harbored  the  anxiety  that  the 
United  States  under  their  new  Constitution  would 
be  too  loosely  held  together.  He  promoted,  therefore, 
every  measure  that  tended  to  strengthen  the  Cen 
tral  Government  and  to  save  it  from  dissolution 
either  by  the  collapse  of  its  unifying  bonds  or  by  an 
archy.  In  the  work  of  the  first  two  years  of  Wash 
ington's  administration,  Hamilton  was  plainly  vic 
torious.  The  Tariff  Law,  the  Excise,  the  National 
Bank,  the  National  Funding  Bill,  all  centraliz 
ing  measures,  were  his.  Washington  approved  them 
all,  and  we  may  believe  that  he  talked  them  over 
with  Hamilton  and  gave  them  his  approval  before 
they  came  under  public  discussion. 

Thus,  as  Hamilton  gained,  Jefferson  plainly  lost. 
But  Washington  did  not  abandon  his  sound  position 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT     193 

as  a  neutral  between  the  two.  He  requested  Jefferson 
and  Edmund  Randolph  to  draw  up  objections  to 
some  of  Hamilton's  schemes,  so  that  he  had  in  writ 
ing  the  arguments  of  very  strong  opponents. 

Meanwhile  the  French  Revolution  had  broken  all 
bounds,  and  Jefferson,  as  the  sponsor  of  the  French 
over  here,  was  kept  busy  in  explaining  and  defending 
the  Gallic  horrors.  The  Americans  were  in  a  large 
sense  law-abiding,  but  in  another  sense  they  were 
lawless.  Nevertheless,  they  heard  with  horror  of  the 
atrocities  of  the  French  Revolutionists  —  of  the 
drownings,  of  the  guillotining,  of  the  imprisonment 
and  execution  of  the  King  and  Queen  —  and  they 
had  a  healthy  distrust  of  the  Jacobin  Party,  which 
boasted  that  these  things  were  natural  accompani 
ments  of  Liberty  with  which  they  planned  to  con 
quer  the  world.  Events  in  France  inevitably  drove 
that  country  into  war  with  England.  Washington 
and  his  chief  advisers  believed  that  the  United  States 
ought  to  remain  neutral  as  between  the  two  bellig 
erents.  But  neutrality  was  difficult.  In  spite  of  their 
horror  at  the  French  Revolution,  the  memory  of  our 
debt  to  France  during  our  own  Revolution  made  a 
very  strong  bond  of  sympathy,  whereas  our  long  rec 
ord  of  hostility  to  England  during  our  Colony  days, 
and  since  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  kept 
alive  a  traditional  hatred  for  Great  Britain.  While  it 


194  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

was  easy,  therefore,  to  preach  neutrality,  it  was  very 
difficult  to  enforce  it.  An  occurrence  which  could 
not  have  been  foreseen  further  added  to  the  difficulty 
of  neutrality. 

In  the  spring  of  1793  the  French  Republic  ap 
pointed  Edmond  Charles  Genet,  familiarly  called 
"  Citizen  Genet,"  Minister  to  the  United  States.  He 
was  a  young  man,  not  more  than  thirty,  of  very  quick 
parts,  who  had  been  brought  up  in  the  Bureau  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  had  an  exorbitant  idea  of  his  own 
importance,  and  might  be  described  without  malice 
as  a  master  of  effrontery.  The  ship  which  brought 
him  to  this  country  was  driven  by  adverse  winds  to 
Charleston  and  landed  him  there  on  April  8th.  He 
lost  no  time  in  fitting  out  a  privateer  against  British 
mercantile  vessels.  The  fact  that  by  so  doing  he 
broke  the  American  rule  of  neutrality  did  not  seem 
to  trouble  him  at  all ;  on  the  contrary,  he  acted  as  if 
he  were  simply  doing  what  the  United  States  would 
do  if  they  really  did  what  they  wished.  As  soon  as 
he  had  made  his  arrangements,  he  proceeded  by 
land  up  the  coast  to  Philadelphia.  Jefferson  was 
exuberant,  and  he  wrote  in  exultation  to  Madison  on 
the  fifth  of  May,  concluding  with  the  phrase,  "I 
wish  we  may  be  able  to  repress  the  spirit  of  the 
people  within  the  limits  of  a  fair  neutrality."  If 
there  be  such  things  as  crocodile  tears,  perhaps  there 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT     195 

may  also  be  crocodile  wishes,  of  which  this  would 
seem  to  be  one.  A  friend  of  Hamilton's,  writing 
about  the  same  time,  speaks  in  different  terms,  as 
follows: 

He  has  a  good  person,  a  fine  ruddy  complexion,  quite 
active,  and  seems  always  in  a  bustle,  more  like  a  busy 
man  than  a  man  of  business.  A  Frenchman  in  his  man 
ners,  he  announces  himself  in  all  companies  as  the  Min 
ister  of  the  Republic,  etc.,  talks  freely  of  his  commission, 
and,  like  most  Europeans,  seems  to  have  adopted  mis 
taken  notions  of  the  penetration  and  knowledge  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States.  His  system,  I  think,  is  to 
laugh  us  into  war  if  he  can.1 

Citizen  Genet  did  not  allow  his  progress  up  the 
coast  to  be  so  rapid  that  he  was  deprived  of  any 
ovation.  The  banquets,  luncheons,  speech-makings, 
by  which  he  was  welcomed  everywhere,  had  had  no 
parallel  in  the  country  up  to  that  time.  They  seemed 
to  be  too  carefully  prepared  to  be  unpremeditated, 
and  probably  many  of  those  who  took  part  in  them 
did  not  understand  that  they  were  cheering  for  a 
cause  which  they  had  never  espoused.  One  wonders 
why  he  was  allowed  to  carry  on  this  personal  cam 
paign  and  to  show  rude  unconcern  for  good  manners, 
or  indeed  for  any  manners  except  those  of  a  wayward 
and  headstrong  boy.  It  might  be  thought  that  the 
Secretary  of  State  abetted  him  and  in  his  infatuation 

1  Irving,  v,  151. 


I96  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

for  France  did  not  check  him ;  but,  so  far  as  I  have 
discovered,  no  evidence  exists  that  Jefferson  was  in 
collusion  with  the  truculent  and  impertinent  "Citi 
zen."  No  doubt,  however,  the  shrewd  American 
politician  took  satisfaction  in  observing  the  extrava 
gances  of  his  fellow  countrymen  in  paying  tribute  to 
the  representative  of  France.  At  Philadelphia,  for 
instance,  the  city  which  already  was  beginning  to 
have  a  reputation  for  spinster  propriety  which  be 
came  its  boast  in  the  next  century,  we  hear  that 
"...  before  Genet  had  presented  his  credentials  and 
been  acknowledged  by  the  President,  he  was  invited 
to  a  grand  republican  dinner,  'at  which,'  we  are  told, 
'the  company  united  in  singing  the  Marseillaise 
Hymn.  A  deputation  of  French  sailors  presented 
themselves,  and  were  received  by  the  guests  with 
the  fraternal  embrace.'  The  table  was  decorated  with 
the  'tree  of  liberty,'  and  a  red  cap,  called  the  cap  of 
liberty,  was  placed  on  the  head  of  the  minister,  and 
from  his  travelled  in  succession  from  head  to  head 
round  the  table."  1 

But  not  all  the  Americans  were  delirious  enthusi 
asts.  Hamilton  kept  his  head  amid  the  whirling  words 
which,  he  said,  might  "do  us  much  harm  and  could 
do  France  no  good."  In  a  letter,  which  deserves  to 
be  quoted  in  spite  of  its  length,  he  states  very  clearly 

1  Jay's  Life,  I,  30. 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT     197 

the  opinions  of  one  of  the  sanest  of  Americans.   He 
writes  to  a  friend : 

It  cannot  be  without  danger  and  inconvenience  to  our 
interests,  to  impress  on  the  nations  of  Europe  an  idea 
that  we  are  actuated  by  the  same  spirit  which  has  for 
some  time  past  fatally  misguided  the  measures  of  those 
who  conduct  the  affairs  of  France,  and  sullied  a  cause 
once  glorious,  and  that  might  have  been  triumphant. 
The  cause  of  France  is  compared  with  that  of  America 
during  its  late  revolution.  Would  to  Heaven  that  the  com 
parison  were  just!  Would  to  Heaven  we  could  discern, 
in  the  mirror  of  French  affairs,  the  same  decorum,  the 
same  gravity,  the  same  order,  the  same  dignity,  the 
same  solemnity,  which  distinguished  the  cause  of  the 
American  Revolution !  Clouds  and  darkness  would  not 
then  rest  upon  the  issue  as  they  now  do.  I  own  I  do  not 
like  the  comparison.  When  I  contemplate  the  horrid 
and  systematic  massacres  of  the  2nd  and  3rd  of  Septem 
ber,  when  I  observe  that  a  Marat  and  a  Robespierre, 
the  notorious  prompters  of  those  bloody  scenes,  sit  tri 
umphantly  in  the  convention,  and  take  a  conspicuous 
part  in  its  measures  —  that  an  attempt  to  bring  the 
assassins  to  justice  has  been  obliged  to  be  abandoned  — 
when  I  see  an  unfortunate  prince,  whose  reign  was  a  con 
tinued  demonstration  of  the  goodness  and  benevolence 
of  his  heart,  of  his  attachment  to  the  people  of  whom  he 
was  the  monarch,  who,  though  educated  in  the  lap  of 
despotism,  had  given  repeated  proofs  that  he  was  not 
the  enemy  of  liberty,  brought  precipitately  and  igno- 
miniously  to  the  block  without  any  substantial  proof  of 
guilt,  as  yet  disclosed  —  without  even  an  authentic  ex 
hibition  of  motives,  in  decent  regard  to  the  opinions  of 
mankind;  when  I  find  the  doctrine  of  atheism  openly 
advanced  in  the  convention,  and  heard  with  loud  ap 
plause  ;  when  I  see  the  sword  of  fanaticism  extended  to 


198  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

force  a  political  creed  upon  citizens  who  were  invited  to 
submit  to  the  arms  of  France  as  the  harbingers  of  liberty; 
when  I  behold  the  hand  of  rapacity  outstretched  to 
prostrate  and  ravish  the  monuments  of  religious  wor 
ship,  erected  by  those  citizens  and  their  ancestors;  when 
I  perceive  passion,  tumult,  and  violence  usurping  those 
seats,  where  reason  and  cool  deliberation  ought  to  pre 
side,  I  acknowledge  that  I  am  glad  to  believe  there  is  no 
real  resemblance  between  what  was  the  cause  of  America 
and  what  is  the  cause  of  France;  that  the  difference  is 
no  less  great  than  that  between  liberty  and  licentious 
ness.  I  regret  whatever  has  a  tendency  to  confound 
them,  and  I  feel  anxious,  as  an  American,  that  the  ebul 
litions  of  inconsiderate  men  among  us  may  not  tend  to 
involve  our  reputation  in  the  issue.1 

Citizen  Genet  continued  his  campaign  unabashed. 
He  attempted  to  force  the  United  States  to  give  arms 
and  munitions  to  the  French.  Receiving  cool  an 
swers  to  his  demands,  he  lost  patience,  and  intended 
to  appeal  to  the  American  People,  over  the  head  of 
the  Government.  He  sent  his  communication  for 
the  two  Houses  of  Congress,  in  care  of  the  Secretary 
of  State,  to  be  delivered.  But  Washington,  whose 
patience  had  seemed  inexhaustible,  believed  that 
the  time  had  come  to  act  boldly.  By  his  instruction 
Jefferson  returned  the  communication  to  Genet 
with  a  note  in  which  he  curtly  reminded  the  obstrep 
erous  Frenchman  of  a  diplomat's  proper  behavior. 
As  the  American  Government  had  already  requested 

1  Hamilton's  Works,  566. 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT     199 

the  French  to  recall  Genet,  his  amazing  inflation 
collapsed  like  a  pricked  bladder.  He  was  too  wary, 
however,  to  return  to  France  which  he  had  served  so 
devotedly.  He  preferred  to  remain  in  this  country, 
to  become  an  American  citizen,  and  to  marry  the 
daughter  of  Governor  Clinton  of  New  York.  Per 
haps  he  had  time  for  leisure,  during  the  anticlimax 
of  his  career,  to  recognize  that  President  Washington, 
whom  he  had  looked  down  upon  as  a  novice  in  diplo 
macy,  knew  how  to  accomplish  his  purpose,  very 
quietly,  but  effectually.  A  century  and  a  quarter 
later,  another  foreigner,  the  German  Ambassador, 
Count  Bernstorff,  was  allowed  by  the  American 
Government  to  weave  an  even  more  menacing  plot, 
but  the  sound  sense  of  the  country  awoke  in  time  to 
sweep  him  and  his  truculence  and  his  conspiracies 
beyond  the  Atlantic. 

The  intrigues  of  Genet  emphasized  the  fact  that 
a  party  had  arisen  and  was  not  afraid  to  speak  openly 
against  President  Washington.  He  held  in  theory  a 
position  above  that  of  parties,  but  the  theory  did  not 
go  closely  with  fact,  for  he  made  no  concealment  of  his 
fundamental  Federalism,  and  every  one  saw  that,  in 
spite  of  his  formal  neutrality,  in  great  matters  he  al 
most  always  sided  with  Hamilton  instead  of  with  Jef 
ferson.  When  he  himself  recognized  that  the  rift  was 
spreading  between  his  two  chief  Cabinet  officers,  he 


200  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

warned  them  both  to  avoid  exaggerating  their  differ 
ences  and  pursuing  any  policy  which  must  be  harm 
ful  to  the  country.  Patriotism  was  the  chief  aim  of 
every  one,  and  patriotism  meant  sinking  one's  private 
desires  in  order  to  achieve  liberty  through  unity. 
Washington  himself  was  a  man  of  such  strict  virtue 
that  he  could  work  with  men  who  in  many  matters 
disagreed  with  him,  and  as  he  left  the  points  of  disa 
greement  on  one  side,  he  used  the  more  effectively 
points  of  agreement.  I  do  not  think  that  Jefferson 
could  do  this,  or  Hamilton  either,  and  I  cannot  rid 
myself  of  the  suspicion  that  Jefferson  furnished 
Philip  Freneau,  who  came  from  New  York  to  Phila 
delphia  to  edit  the  anti-Washington  newspaper,  with 
much  of  his  inspiration  if  not  actual  articles.  The  ob 
jective  of  the  "Gazette"  was,  of  course,  the  destruc 
tion  of  Hamilton  and  his  policy  of  finance.  If  Ham 
ilton  could  be  thus  destroyed,  it  would  be  far  easier 
to  pull  down  Washington  also.  Lest  the  invectives 
in  the  "Gazette"  should  fail  to  shake  Washington  in 
his  regard  for  Hamilton,  Jefferson  indited  a  serious 
criticism  of  the  Treasury,  and  he  took  pains  to  have 
friends  of  his  leave  copies  of  the  indictment  so  that 
Washington  could  not  fail  to  see  them.  The  latter, 
however,  by  a  perfectly  natural  and  characteristic 
stroke  which  Jefferson  could  not  foresee,  sent  the 
indictment  to  Hamilton  and  asked  him  to  explain. 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT    201 

This  Hamilton  did  straightforwardly  and  point- 
blank  —  and  Jefferson  had  the  mortification  of  per 
ceiving  that  his  ruse  had  failed.  Hamilton,  under  a 
thin  disguise,  wrote  a  series  of  newspaper  assaults  on 
Jefferson,  who  could  not  parry  them  or  answer  them. 
He  was  no  match  for  the  most  terrible  controversial 
ist  in  America;  but  he  could  wince.  And  presently 
B.  F.  Bache,  the  grandson  of  Benjamin  Franklin, 
brought  his  unusual  talents  in  vituperation,  in  cal 
umny,  and  in  nastiness  to  the  "Aurora,'*  a  black 
guard  sheet  of  Philadelphia.  Washington  doubtless 
thought  himself  so  hardened  to  abuse  by  the  experi 
ence  he  had  had  of  it  during  the  Revolution  that 
nothing  which  Freneau,  Bache,  and  their  kind  could 
say  or  do,  would  affect  him.  But  he  was  mistaken. 
And  one  cannot  fail  to  see  that  they  saddened  and 
annoyed  him.  He  felt  so  keenly  the  evil  which  must 
come  from  the  deliberate  sowing  of  dissensions.  He 
cared  little  what  they  might  say  against  himself, 
but  he  cared  immensely  for  their  sin  against  patri 
otism.  Before  his  term  as  President  drew  to  a  close, 
he  was  already  deciding  not  to  be  a  candidate  for  a 
second  term.  He  told  his  intention  to  a  few  intimates 
—  from  them  it  spread  to  many  others.  His  best 
friends  were  amazed.  They  foresaw  great  trials  for 
the  Nation  and  a  possible  revolution.  Hamilton 
tried  to  move  him  by  every  sort  of  appeal.  Jefferson 


202  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

also  was  almost  boisterous  in  denouncing  the  very 
idea.  He  impressed  upon  him  the  importance  of  his 
continuing  at  that  crisis.  He  had  not  been  President 
long  enough  to  establish  precedents  for  the  new 
Nation.  There  were  many  volatile  incidents  which, 
if  treated  with  less  judgment  than  his,  might  do 
grievous  harm.  One  wonders  how  sincere  all  the  en 
treaties  to  Washington  were,  but  one  cannot  doubt 
that  the  great  majority  of  the  country  was  perfectly 
sincere  in  wishing  to  have  him  continue;  for  it  had 
sunk  deep  into  the  hearts  of  Americans  that  Wash 
ington  was  himself  a  party,  a  policy,  an  ideal  above 
all  the  rest.  And  when  the  election  was  held  in  the 
autumn  of  1792,  he  was  reflected  by  the  equivalent 
of  a  unanimous  vote. 


T 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  JAY  TREATY 

HERE  is  no  doubt  that  Washington  in  his 
Olympian  quiet  took  a  real  satisfaction  in  his 

election.  On  January  20,  1793,  he  wrote  to  Governor 

Henry  Lee  of  Virginia: 

A  mind  must  be  insensible  indeed  not  to  be  gratefully 
impressed  by  so  distinguished  and  honorable  a  testi 
mony  of  public  approbation  and  confidence;  and  as  I 
suffered  my  name  to  be  contemplated  on  this  occasion, 
it  is  more  than  probable  that  I  should,  for  a  moment, 
have  experienced  chagrin,  if  my  reelection  had  not  been 
by  a  pretty  respectable  vote.  But  to  say  I  feel  pleasure 
from  the  prospect  of  commencing  another  term  of  duty 
would  be  a  departure  from  the  truth,  —  for,  however  it 
might  savor  of  affectation  in  the  opinion  of  the  world 
(who,  by  the  by,  can  only  guess  at  my  sentiments,  as  it 
never  has  been  troubled  with  them),  my  particular  and 
confidential  friends  well  know,  that  it  was  after  a  long 
and  painful  conflict  in  my  own  breast,  that  I  was  with 
held,  (by  considerations  which  are  not  necessary  to  be 
mentioned),  from  requesting  in  time,  that  no  vote 
might  be  thrown  away  upon  me,  it  being  my  fixed  deter 
mination  to  return  to  the  walks  of  private  life  at  the  end 
of  my  term.1 

Washington  felt  at  his  reelection  not  merely  ego 
tistic  pleasure  for  a  personal  success,  but  the  assur- 

1  Ford,  xii,  256. 


204  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

ance  that  it  involved  a  triumph  of  measures  which 
he  held  to  be  of  far  more  importance  than  any  success 
of  his  own.  The  American  Nation's  new  organism 
which  he  had  set  in  motion  could  now  continue  with 
the  uniformity  of  its  policy  undisturbed  by  dislocat 
ing  checks  and  interruptions.  Much,  very  much 
depended  upon  the  persons  appointed  to  direct  its 
progress,  and  they  depended  upon  the  President  who 
appointed  them.  In  matters  of  controversy  or  dis 
pute,  Washington  upheld  a  perfectly  impartial  at 
titude.  But  he  did  not  believe  that  this  should 
shackle  his  freedom  in  appointing.  According  to  him 
a  man  must  profess  right  views  in  order  to  be  con 
sidered  worthy  of  appointment.  The  result  of  this 
was  that  Washington's  appointees  must  be  orthodox 
in  his  definition  of  orthodoxy. 

His  first  important  act  in  his  new  administration 
was  to  issue  a  Proclamation  of  Neutrality  on  April 
22d.  Although  this  document  was  clear  in  intent  and 
in  purpose,  and  was  evidently  framed  to  keep  the 
United  States  from  being  involved  in  the  war  be 
tween  France  and  England,  it  gave  offence  to  par 
tisans  of  either  country.  They  used  it  as  a  weapon 
for  attacking  the  Government,  so  that  Washington 
found  to  his  sorrow  that  the  partisan  spites,  which 
he  had  hoped  would  vanish  almost  of  their  own  ac 
cord,  were  become,  on  the  contrary,  even  more  for- 


THE  JAY  TREATY  205 

midable  and  irritating.  At  this  juncture  the  coming 
of  Genet  and  his  machinations  added  greatly  to 
the  embarrassment,  and,  having  no  sense  of  decency, 
Genet  insinuated  that  the  President  had  usurped 
the  powers  of  Congress  and  that  he  himself  would 
seek  redress  by  appealing  to  the  people  over  the 
President.  I  have  already  stated  that,  having  toler 
ated  Genet's  insults  and  menaces  as  far  as  he  deemed 
necessary,  Washington  put  forth  his  hand  and 
crushed  the  spluttering  Frenchman  like  a  bubble. 

Persons  who  like  to  trace  the  sardonic  element  in 
history  —  the  element  which  seems  to  laugh  deri 
sively  at  the  ineffectual  efforts  of  us  poor  mortals  to 
establish  ourselves  and  lead  rational  lives  in  the  world 
as  it  is  —  can  find  few  better  examples  of  it  than  these 
early  years  of  the  American  Republic.  In  the  war 
which  brought  about  the  independence  of  the  Amer 
ican  Colonies,  England  had  been  their  enemy  and 
France  their  friend.  Now  their  instinctive  gratitude 
to  France  induced  many,  perhaps  a  majority  of  them, 
to  look  with  effusive  favor  on  France,  although  her 
character  and  purpose  had  quite  changed  and  it  was 
very  evident  that  for  the  Americans  to  side  with 
France  would  be  against  sound  policy  and  common 
sense.  Neutrality,  the  strictest  neutrality,  between 
England  and  France  was  therefore  the  only  rational 
course;  but  the  American  partisans  of  these  rivals 


206  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

did  their  utmost  to  render  this  unachievable.  Much 
of  Washington's  second  term  see-sawed  between  one 
horn  and  the  other  of  this  dilemma.  The  sardonic 
aspect  becomes  more  glaring  if  we  remember  that  the 
United  States  were  a  new-born  nation  which  ought 
to  have  been  devoting  itself  to  establishing  viable 
relations  among  its  own  population  and  not  to  have 
been  dissipating  its  strength  taking  sides  with  neigh 
bors  who  lived  four  thousand  miles  away. 

In  the  autumn  of  1793  Jefferson  insisted  upon 
resigning  as  Secretary  of  State.  Washington  used 
all  his  persuasiveness  to  dissuade  him,  but  in  vain. 
Jefferson  saw  the  matter  in  its  true  light,  and  in 
sisted.  Perhaps  it  at  last  occurred  to  him,  as  it  must 
occur  to  every  dispassionate  critic,  that  he  could  not 
go  on  forever  acting  as  an  important  member  of  an 
administration  which  pursued  a  policy  diametrically 
opposed  to  his  own.  After  all,  even  the  most  adroit 
politicians  must  sometimes  sacrifice  an  offering  to 
candor,  not  to  say  honesty.  At  the  end  of  the  year 
he  retired  to  the  privacy  of  his  home  at  Monticello, 
where  he  remained  in  seclusion,  not  wholly  innocu 
ous,  until  the  end  of  1796.  Edmund  Randolph  suc 
ceeded  him  as  Secretary  of  State. 

Whether  it  was  owing  to  the  departure  of  Jeffer 
son  from  the  Cabinet  or  not,  the  fact  remains  that 
Washington  concluded  shortly  thereafter  the  most 


THE  JAY  TREATY  207 

difficult  diplomatic  negotiation  of  his  career.  This 
was  the  treaty  with  England,  commonly  called  Jay's 
Treaty.  The  President  wished  at  first  to  appoint 
Hamilton,  the  ablest  member  of  the  Cabinet,  but, 
realizing  that  it  would  be  unwise  to  deprive  himself 
and  his  administration  of  so  necessary  a  supporter, 
he  offered  the  post  to  John  Jay,  the  Chief  Justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court.  The  quality,  deemed  most 
desirable,  which  it  was  feared  Jay  might  lack,  was 
audacity.  But  he  had  discretion,  tact,  and  urbanity 
in  full  share,  besides  that  indefinable  something 
which  went  with  his  being  a  great  gentleman. 

The  President,  writing  to  Gouverneur  Morris,  who 
had  recently  been  recalled  as  Minister  to  France, 
said: 

My  primary  objects,  to  which  I  have  steadily  ad 
hered,  have  been  to  preserve  the  country  in  peace,  if  I 
can,  and  to  be  prepared  for  war  if  I  cannot,  to  effect  the 
first,  upon  terms  consistent  with  the  respect  which  is 
due  to  ourselves,  and  with  honor,  justice  and  good  faith 
to  all  the  world. 

Mr.  Jay  (and  not  Mr.  Jefferson)  as  has  been  suggested 
to  you,  embarked  as  envoy  extraordinary  for  England 
about  the  middle  of  May.  If  he  succeed,  well ;  if  he  does 
not,  why,  knowing  the  worst,  we  must  take  measures 
accordingly.1 

Jay  reached  London  early  in  June,  1794,  and 
labored  over  the  treaty  with  the  British  negotiators 

1  Ford,  xil,  436.  Mount  Vernon,  June  25,  1794. 


208  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

during  the  summer  and  autumn,  started  for  home 
before  Christmas,  and  put  the  finished  document  in 
Washington's  hands  in  March.  From  the  moment 
of  his  going  enemies  of  all  kinds  talked  bitterly 
against  him.  The  result  must  be  a  foregone  conclu 
sion,  since  John  Jay  was  regarded  as  the  chief  Anglo- 
maniac  in  America  after  Hamilton.  They  therefore 
condemned  in  advance  any  treaty  he  might  agree 
to.  But  their  criticism  went  deeper  than  mere  ha 
tred  of  him:  it  sprang  from  an  inveterate  hatred  of 
England,  which  dated  from  before  the  Revolution. 
Since  the  Treaty  of  1783  the  English  seemed  to  act 
deliberately  with  studied  truculence,  as  if  the  Amer 
icans  would  not  and  could  not  retaliate.  They  were 
believed  to  be  instigating  the  Indians  to  continuous 
underhand  war.  They  had  reached  that  dangerous 
stage  of  truculence,  when  they  did  not  think  it  mat 
tered  whether  they  spoke  with  common  diplomatic 
reticence.  Lord  Dorchester,  the  Governor-General 
of  Canada,  and  to-day  better  known  as  Sir  Guy  Carle- 
ton,  his  name  before  they  made  him  a  peer,  ad 
dressed  a  gathering  of  Indian  chiefs  at  Quebec  on 
the  assumption  that  war  would  come  in  a  few  weeks. 
President  Washington  kept  steady  watch  of  every 
symptom,  and  he  knew  that  it  would  not  require  a 
large  spark  to  kindle  a  conflagration.  "My  objects 
are,  to  prevent  a  war,"  he  wrote  to  Edmund  Randolph, 


THE  JAY  TREATY  209 

on  April  15,  1794,  "if  justice  can  be  obtained  by  fair 
and  strong  representations  (to  be  made  by  a  special 
envoy)  of  the  injuries  which  this  country  has  sus 
tained  from  Great  Britain  in  various  ways,  to  put  it 
into  a  complete  state  of  military  defence,  and  to  pro 
vide  eventually  for  such  measures  as  seem  to  be  now 
pending  in  Congress  for  execution,  if  negotiations  in 
a  reasonable  time  proves  unsuccessful."  * 

The  year  1794  marked  the  sleepless  anxiety  of  the 
Silent  President.  Day  and  night  his  thoughts  were 
in  London,  with  Jay.  He  said  little;  he  had  few  let 
ters  from  Jay  —  it  then  required  from  eight  to  ten 
weeks  for  the  mail  clippers  to  make  a  voyage  across 
the  Atlantic.  Opposition  to  the  general  idea  of  such 
a  treaty  as  the  mass  of  Republicans  and  Anti-Fed 
eralists  supposed  Washington  hoped  to  secure,  grew 
week  by  week.  The  Silent  Man  heard  the  cavil  and 
said  nothing. 

At  last  early  in  1795  Jay  returned.  His  Treaty 
caused  an  uproar.  The  hottest  of  his  enemies  found 
an  easy  explanation  on  the  ground  that  he  was  a 
traitor.  Stanch  Federalists  suffered  all  varieties  of 
mortification.  Washington  himself  entered  into  no 
discussion,  but  he  ruminated  over  those  which  came 
to  him.  I  am  not  sure  that  he  invented  the  phrase 
11  Either  the  Treaty,  or  war,"  which  summed  up  the 
1  Ford,  XHI,  4-9. 


210  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

alternatives  which  confronted  Jay;  but  he  used  it 
with  convincing  emphasis.  When  it  came  before  the 
Senate,  both  sides  had  gathered  every  available 
supporter,  and  the  vote  showed  only  a  majority  of 
one  in  its  favor.  Still,  it  passed.  But  that  did  not 
satisfy  its  pertinacious  enemies.  Neither  were  they 
restrained  by  the  President's  proclamation.  The 
Constitution  assigned  the  duty  of  negotiating  and 
ratifying  treaties  to  the  President  and  Senate;  but 
to  the  perfervid  Anti-Britishers  the  Constitution 
was  no  more  than  an  old  cobweb  to  be  brushed  away 
at  pleasure.  The  Jay  Treaty  could  not  be  put  into 
effect  without  money  for  expenses;  all  bills  involving 
money  must  pass  the  House  of  Representatives; 
therefore,  the  House  would  actually  control  the  oper 
ation  of  the  Treaty. 

The  House  at  this  time  was  Republican  by  a  marked 
majority.  In  March,  1796,  the  President  laid  the 
matter  before  the  House.  In  a  twinkling  the  flood 
gates  of  speechifying  burst  open ;  the  debates  touched 
every  aspect  of  the  question.  James  Madison,  the 
wise  supporter  of  Washington  and  Hamilton  in 
earlier  days  and  the  fellow  worker  on  "The  Federal 
ist,"  led  the  Democrats  in  their  furious  attacks. 
He  was  ably  seconded  by  Albert  Gallatin,  the  high- 
minded  young  Swiss  doctrinaire  from  Geneva,  a 
terrible  man,  in  whose  head  principles  became  two- 


THE  JAY  TREATY  211 

edged  weapons  with  Calvinistic  precision  and  mer- 
cilessness.  The  Democrats  requested  the  President 
to  let  them  see  the  correspondence  in  reference  to  the 
Treaty  during  its  preparation.  This  he  wisely  de 
clined  to  do.  The  Constitution  did  not  recognize 
their  right  to  make  the  demand,  and  he  foresaw  that, 
if  granted  by  him  then,  it  might  be  used  as  a  harm 
ful  precedent. 

For  many  weeks  the  controversy  waxed  hot  in  the 
House.  Scores  of  speakers  hammered  at  every  argu 
ment,  yet  only  one  speech  eclipsed  all  the  rest,  and 
remains  now,  after  one  hundred  and  thirty  years,  a 
paragon.  There  are  historians  who  assert  that  this 
was  the  greatest  speech  delivered  in  Congress  before 
Daniel  Webster  spoke  there  —  an  implication  which 
might  lead  irreverent  critics  to  whisper  that  too  much 
reading  may  have  dulled  their  discrimination.  But 
fortunately  not  only  the  text  of  the  speech  remains ; 
we  have  also  ample  evidence  of  the  effect  it  produced 
on  its  hearers.  Fisher  Ames,  a  Representative  from 
Massachusetts,  uttered  it.  He  was  a  young  lawyer, 
feeble  in  health,  but  burning,  after  the  manner  of 
some  consumptives,  with  intellectual  and  moral  fire 
which  strangely  belied  his  slender  thread  of  physical 
life.  Ames  pictured  the  horrors  which  would  ensue  if 
the  Treaty  were  rejected.  Quite  naturally  he  assumed 
the  part  of  a  man  on  the  verge  of  the  grave,  which 


212  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

increased  the  impressiveness  of  his  words.  He  spoke 
for  three  hours.  The  members  of  the  House  listened 
with  feverish  attention;  the  crowds  in  the  balconies 
could  not  smother  their  emotion.  One  witness  re 
ports  that  Vice-President  John  Adams  sat  in  the 
gallery,  the  tears  running  down  his  cheeks,  and  that 
he  said  to  the  friend  beside  him,  "  My  God,  how 
great  he  is!" 

When  Ames  began,  no  doubt  the  Anti-British 
groups  which  swelled  the  audience  turned  towards 
him  an  unsympathetic  if  not  a  scornful  attention  - 
they  had  already  taken  a  poll  of  their  members,  from 
which  it  appeared  that  they  could  count  on  a  ma 
jority  of  six  to  defeat  the  Treaty.  As  he  proceeded, 
however,  and  they  observed  how  deeply  he  was 
moving  the  audience,  they  may  have  had  to  keep  up 
their  courage  by  reflecting  that  speeches  in  Congress 
rarely  change  votes.  They  are  intended  to  be  read 
by  the  public  outside,  which  is  not  under  the  spell  of 
the  orator  or  the  crowd.  But  when  Fisher  Ames, 
after  what  must  have  seemed  to  them  a  whirlwind 
speech,  closed  with  these  solemn,  restrained  words, 
they  must  have  doubted  whether  their  victory  was 
won: 

Even  the  minutes  I  have  spent  in  expostulating,  have 
their  value  [he  said]  because  they  protract  the  crisis  and 
the  short  period  in  which  alone  we  may  resolve  to  escape 


THE  JAY  TREATY  213 

it.  Yet  I  have,  perhaps,  as  little  personal  interest  in  the 
event  as  any  one  here.  There  is,  I  believe,  no  member, 
who  will  not  think  his  chance  to  be  a  witness  of  the  con 
sequences  greater  than  mine.  If,  however,  the  vote 
should  pass  to  reject  —  even  I,  slender  and  almost 
broken  as  my  hold  on  life  is,  may  outlive  the  govern 
ment  and  Constitution  of  my  country.1 

The  next  day  when  the  vote  was  taken  it  appeared 
that  the  Republicans,  instead  of  winning  by  a  ma 
jority  of  six,  had  lost  by  three. 

The  person  who  really  triumphed  was  George 
Washington,  although  Fisher  Ames,  who  won  the 
immediate  victory,  deserved  undying  laurel.  The 
Tre'aty  had  all  the  objections  that  its  critics  brought 
against  it  then,  but  it  had  one  sterling  virtue  which 
outweighed  them  all.  It  not  only  made  peace  be 
tween  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  the  nor 
mal  condition,  but  it  removed  the  likelihood  that 
the  wrangling  over  petty  matters  might  lead  to  war. 
For  many  years  Washington  had  a  fixed  idea  that  if 
the  new  country  could  live  for  twenty  years  without 
a  conflict  with  its  chief  neighbors,  its  future  would 
be  safe;  for  he  felt  that  at  the  end  of  that  time  it 
would  have  grown  so  strong  by  the  natural  increase 
in  population  and  by  the  strength  that  comes  from 
developing  its  resources,  that  it  need  not  fear  the  at 
tack  of  any  people  in  the  world.  The  Jay  Treaty 

1  Elson,  359. 


2i4  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

helped  towards  this  end;  it  prevented  war  for  sixteen 
years  only;  but  even  that  delay  was  of  great  service 
to  the  Americans  and  made  them  more  ready  to  face 
it  than  they  would  have  been  in  1795. 


CHAPTER  XI 
WASHINGTON  RETIRES  FROM  PUBLIC  LIFE 

THE  Treaty  with  England  had  scarely  been  put 
in  operation  before  the  Treaty  with  France,  of 
which  Washington  also  felt  the  importance,  came  to 
the  front.  Monroe  was  not  an  aggressive  agent.  Per 
haps  very  few  civilized  Americans  could  have  filled 
that  position  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  American 
countrymen.  They  wished  the  French  to  acknowl 
edge  and  explain  various  acts  which  they  qualified 
as  outrages,  whereas  the  French  regarded  as  glories 
what  they  called  grievances.  The  men  of  the  Direc 
tory  which  now  ruled  France  did  not  profess  the 
atrocious  methods  of  the  Terrorists,  but  they  could 
not  afford  in  treating  with  a  foreigner  to  disavow 
the  Terrorists.  In  the  summer  of  '96,  Washington, 
being  dissatisfied  with  Monroe's  results,  recalled 
him,  and  sent  in  his  place  Charles  Cotesworth 
Pinckney,  to  whom  President  Adams  afterwards 
added  John  Marshall  and  Elbridge  Gerry,  forming  a 
Commission  of  three.  Some  of  the  President's  critics 
have  regarded  his  treatment  of  Monroe  as  unfair, 
and  they  imply  that  it  was  inspired  by  partisanship. 
He  had  always  been  an  undisguised  Federalist, 


2i6  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

whereas  Monroe,  during  the  past  year  or  more,  had 
followed  Jefferson  and  become  an  unswerving  Demo 
crat.  The  publication  here  of  a  copy  of  Monroe's 
letter  to  the  French  Committee  of  Public  Safety 
caused  a  sensation;  for  he  had  asserted  that  he  was 
not  instructed  to  ask  for  the  repeal  of  the  French 
decrees  by  which  the  spoliation  of  American  com 
merce  had  been  practised,  and  he  added  that  if  the 
decrees  benefited  France,  the  United  States  would 
submit  not  only  with  patience  but  with  pleasure. 
What  wonder  that  Washington,  in  reading  this  letter 
and  taking  in  the  full  enormity  of  Monroe's  words, 
should  have  allowed  himself  the  exclamation,  "  Ex 
traordinary  !"  What  wonder  that  in  due  course  of 
time  he  recalled  Monroe  from  Paris  and  replaced  him 
with  a  man  whom  he  could  trust! 

The  settlement  of  affairs  with  France  did  not 
come  until  after  Washington  ceased  to  be  President. 
I  will,  therefore,  say  no  more  about  it,  except  to  refer 
to  the  outrageous  conduct  of  the  French,  who  hurried 
two  of  the  Commissioners  out  of  France,  and,  ap 
parently  at  the  instigation  of  Talleyrand,  declared 
that  they  must  pay  a  great  deal  of  money  before 
they  made  any  arrangement,  to  which  Charles  Pinck- 
ney  made  the  famous  rejoinder,  "  Millions  for  de 
fence,  but  not  one  cent  for  tribute."  The  negotia 
tions  became  so  stormy  that  war  seemed  imminent. 


RETIRES  FROM  PUBLIC  LIFE          217 

Congress  authorized  President  Adams  to  enlist  ten 
thousand  men  to  be  put  into  the  field  in  case  of  need, 
and  he  wrote  to  Washington:  "We  must  have  your 
name,  if  you  will  in  any  case  permit  us  to  use  it. 
There  will  be  more  efficacy  in  it  than  in  many  an 
army."  McHenry,  the  Secretary  of  War,  wrote: 
"You  see  how  the  storm  thickens,  and  that  our 
vessel  will  soon  require  its  ancient  pilot.  Will  you  - 
may  we  flatter  ourselves,  that  in  a  crisis  so  awful  and 
important,  you  will  accept  the  command  of  all  our 
armies?  I  hope  you  will,  because  you  alone  can 
unite  all  hearts  and  all  hands,  if  it  is  possible  that 
they  can  be  united."  l 

To  President  Adams  Washington  replied  on  July  4, 
1799:  "As  my  whole  life  has  been  dedicated  to  my 
country  in  one  shape  or  another,  for  the  poor  remains 
of  it,  it  is  not  an  object  to  contend  for  ease  and  quiet, 
when  all  that  is  valuable  is  at  stake,  further  than  to 
be  satisfied  that  the  sacrifice  I  should  make  of  these, 
is  acceptable  and  desired  by  my  country."  2 

Congress  voted  to  restore  for  Washington  the 
rank  of  Commander-in-Chief,  and  he  agreed  with 
the  Secretary  of  War  that  the  three  Major-Generals 
should  be  Alexander  Hamilton,  Inspector-General; 
Charles  C.  Pinckney,  who  was  still  in  Europe;  and 
Henry  Knox.  But  a  change  came  over  the  passions 

1  Irving,  v,  290.  2  Ibid.,  291. 


2i8  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

of  France;  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  the  new  despot  who 
had  taken  control  of  that  hysterical  republic  for 
himself,  was  now  aspiring  to  something  higher  and 
larger  than  the  humiliation  of  the  United  States  and 
his  menace  in  that  direction  ceased. 

We  need  to  note  two  or  three  events  before  Wash 
ington's  term  ended  because  they  were  thoroughly 
characteristic.  First  of  these  was  the  Whiskey  In 
surrection  in  western  Pennsylvania.  The  inhabitants 
first  grew  surly,  then  broke  out  in  insurrection  on 
account  of  the  Excise  Law.  They  found  it  cheaper 
to  convert  their  corn  and  grain  into  whiskey,  which 
could  be  more  easily  transported,  but  the  Government 
insisted  that  the  Excise  Law,  being  a  law,  should  be 
obeyed.  The  malcontents  held  a  great  mass  meeting 
on  Braddock's  Field,  denounced  the  law  and  declared 
that  they  would  not  obey  it.  Washington  issued  a 
proclamation  calling  upon  the  people  to  resume  their 
peaceable  life.  He  called  also  on  the  Governors  of 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  New  Jersey,  and  Virginia 
for  troops,  which  they  furnished.  His  right-hand 
lieutenant  was  Alexander  Hamilton,  who  felt  quite 
as  keenly  as  he  did  himself  the  importance  of  putting 
down  such  an  insurrection.  Washington  knew  that 
if  any  body  of  the  people  were  allowed  unpunished 
to  rise  and  disobey  any  law  which  pinched  or  irri 
tated  them,  all  law  and  order  would  very  soon  go  by 


RETIRES  FROM  PUBLIC  LIFE  219 

the  board.  His  action  was  one  of  the  great  examples 
in  government  which  he  set  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  He  showed  that  we  must  never  parley  or 
haggle  with  sedition,  treason,  or  lawlessness,  but 
must  strike  a  blow  that  cannot  be  parried,  and  at 
once.  The  Whiskey  Insurrectionists  may  have  im 
agined  that  they  were  too  remote  to  be  reached  in 
their  western  wilderness,  but  he  taught  them  a  most 
salutary  lesson  that,  as  they  were  in  the  Union,  the 
power  of  the  Union  could  and  would  reach  them. 

One  of  the  matters  which  Washington  could  not 
have  foreseen  was  the  outrageous  abuse  of  the  press, 
which  surpassed  in  virulence  and  indecency  any 
thing  hitherto  known  in  the  United  States.  At  first 
the  journalistic  thugs  took  care  not  to  vilify  Wash 
ington  personally,  but,  as  they  became  more  out 
rageous,  they  spared  neither  him  nor  his  family. 
Freneau,  Bache,  and  Giles  were  among  the  most 
malignant  of  these  infamous  men ;  and  most  suspi 
cious  is  it  that  two  of  them  at  least  were  proteges  of 
Thomas  Jefferson.  Once,  when  the  attack  was  par 
ticularly  atrocious,  and  the  average  citizen  might 
well  be  excused  if  he  believed  that  Jefferson  wrote 
it,  Jefferson,  unmindful  of  the  full  bearing  of  the 
French  proverb,  Qui  s*  excuse  s' accuse,  wrote  to  Wash 
ington  exculpating  himself  and  protesting  that  he 
was  not  the  author  of  that  particular  attack,  and 


220  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

added  that  he  had  never  written  any  article  of  that 
kind  for  the  press.  Many  years  later  the  editor  of 
that  newspaper,  one  of  the  most  shameless  of  the 
malignants,  calmly  reported  in  a  batch  of  reminis 
cences  that  Jefferson  did  contribute  many  of  the 
most  flagrant  articles.  Senator  Lodge,  in  comment 
ing  on  this  affair,  caustically  remarks:  "Strict  ve 
racity  was  not  the  strongest  characteristic  of  either 
Freneau  or  Jefferson,  and  it  is  really  of  but  little 
consequence  whether  Freneau  was  lying  in  his  old 
age  or  in  the  prime  of  life."  1 

An  unbiassed  searcher  after  truth  to-day  will  find 
that  the  circumstantial  evidence  runs  very  strongly 
against  Jefferson.  He  brought  Freneau  over  from 
New  York  to  Philadelphia,  he  knew  the  sort  of  work 
that  Freneau  would  and  could  do,  he  gave  him  an 
office  in  the  State  Department,  he  probably  dis 
cussed  the  topics  which  the  "National  Gazette"  was 
to  take  up,  and  he  probably  read  the  proof  of  the 
articles  which  that  paper  was  to  publish.  In  his 
animosities  the  cloak  of  charity  neither  became  him 
nor  fitted  him. 

Several  years  later,  when  Bache's  paper,  the  "  Au 
rora,"  printed  some  material  which  Washington's 
enemies  hoped  would  damage  him,  Jefferson  again 
took  alarm  and  wrote  to  Washington  to  free  himself 
1  Lodge,  ii,  223. 


RETIRES  FROM  PUBLIC  LIFE          221 

from  blame.    To  him,  the  magnanimous  President 
replied  in  part: 

If  I  had  entertained  any  suspicions  before,  that  the 
queries,  which  have  been  published  in  Bache's  paper, 
proceeded  from  you,  the  assurances  you  have  given  of 
the  contrary  would  have  removed  them;  but  the  truth 
is,  I  harbored  none.  I  am  at  no  loss  to  conjecture  from 
what  source  they  flowed,  through  what  channel  they 
were  conveyed,  and  for  what  purpose  they  and  similar 
publications  appear.  They  were  known  to  be  in  the 
hands  of  Mr.  Parker  in  the  early  part  of  the  last  session 
of  Congress.  They  were  shown  about  by  Mr.  Giles 
during  the  session,  and  they  made  their  public  exhibi 
tion  about  the  close  of  it. 

Perceiving  and  probably  hearing,  that  no  abuse  in 
the  gazettes  would  induce  me  to  take  notice  of  anony 
mous  publications  against  me,  those,  who  were  disposed 
to  do  me  such  friendly  offices,  have  embraced  without 
restraint  every  opportunity  to  weaken  the  confidence 
of  the  people;  and,  by  having  the  whole  game  in  their 
hands,  they  have  scrupled  not  to  publish  things  that 
do  not,  as  well  as  those  which  do  exist,  and  to  mutilate 
the  latter,  so  as  to  make  them  subserve  the  purposes 
which  they  have  in  view.1 

Washington's  opinion  of  the  scurrilous  crusade 
against  him,  he  expressed  in  the  following  letter  to 
Henry  Lee: 

But  in  what  will  this  abuse  terminate?  For  the  result, 
as  it  respects  myself,  I  care  not;  for  I  have  a  consolation 
within  that  no  earthly  efforts  can  deprive  me  of,  and 
that  is,  that  neither  ambition  nor  interested  motives 
have  influenced  my  conduct.  The  arrows  of  malevo- 

1  Ford,  xiii,  229. 


222  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

lence,  therefore,  however  barbed  and  well  pointed,  never 
can  reach  the  most  vulnerable  part  of  me;  though, 
whilst  I  am  up  as  a  mark,  they  will  be  continually  aimed. 
The  publications  in  Freneau's  and  Bache's  papers  are 
outrages  in  that  style  in  proportion  as  their  pieces  are 
treated  with  contempt  and  are  passed  by  in  silence  by 
those  at  whom  they  are  aimed.  The  tendency  of  them, 
however,  is  too  obvious  to  be  mistaken  by  men  of  cool 
and  dispassionate  minds,  and,  in  my  opinion,  ought  to 
alarm  them,  because  it  is  difficult  to  prescribe  bounds 
to  the  effect.1 

By  his  refusal  to  take  notice  of  these  indecencies, 
Washington  set  a  high  example.  In  other  countries, 
in  France  and  England,  for  example,  the  victims  of 
such  abuse  resorted  to  duels  with  their  abusers:  a 
very  foolish  and  inadequate  practice,  since  it  hap 
pened  as  often  as  not  that  the  aggrieved  person  was 
killed.  In  taking  no  notice  of  the  calumnies,  there 
fore,  Washington  prevented  the  President  of  the 
United  States  from  being  drawn  into  an  unseemly 
duel.  We  cannot  fail  to  recognize  also  that  Wash 
ington  was  very  sensitive  to  the  maintenance  of 
freedom  of  speech.  He  seems  to  have  acted  on  the 
belief  that  it  was  better  that  occasionally  license 
should  degenerate  into  abuse  than  that  liberty 
should  be  suppressed.  He  was  the  President  of  the 
first  government  in  the  world  which  did  not  control 
the  utterances  of  its  people.  Perhaps  he  may  have 

1  Lodge,  ii,  236. 


RETIRES  FROM  PUBLIC  LIFE  223 

supposed  that  their  patriotism  would  restrain  them 
from  excesses,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
insane  gibes  of  the  Freneaus  and  the  Baches  gave 
him  much  pain  because  they  proved  that  those 
scorpions  were  not  up  to  the  level  which  the  new 
Nation  offered  them. 

As  the  time  for  the  conclusion  of  Washington's 
second  term  drew  near,  he  left  no  doubt  as  to  his 
intentions.  Though  some  of  his  best  friends  urged 
him  to  stand  for  reelection,  he  firmly  declined.  He 
felt  that  he  had  done  enough  for  his  country  in 
sacrificing  the  last  eight  years  to  it.  He  had  seen  it 
through  its  formative  period,  and  had,  he  thought, 
steered  it  intb  clear,  quiet  water,  so  that  there  was 
no  threatening  danger  to  demand  his  continuance  at 
the  helm.  Many  persons  thought  that  he  was  more 
than  glad  to  be  relieved  of  the  increasing  abuse  of 
the  scurrilous  editors.  No  doubt  he  was,  but  we  can 
hardly  agree  that  merely  for  the  sake  of  that  relief 
he  would  abandon  his  Presidential  post.  But  does  it 
not  seem  more  likely  that  his  unwillingness  to  con 
vert  the  Presidency  into  a  life  office,  and  so  to  give 
the  critics  of  the  American  experiment  a  valid 
cause  for  opposition,  led  him  to  establish  the  prece 
dent  that  two  terms  were  enough?  More  than  once 
in  the  century  and  a  quarter  since  he  retired  in  1797, 
over-ambitious  Presidents  have  schemed  to  win  a 


224  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

third  election  and  flattering  sycophants  have  en 
couraged  them  to  believe  that  they  could  attain  it. 
But  before  they  came  to  the  test  Washington's 
example  —  "no  more  than  two"  —  has  blocked 
their  advance.  In  this  respect  also  we  must  admit 
that  he  looked  far  into  the  future  and  saw  what 
would  be  best  for  posterity.  The  second  term  as  it 
has  proved  is  bad  enough,  diverting  a  President 
during  his  first  term  to  devote  much  of  his  energy 
and  attention  to  setting  traps  to  secure  the  second.  It 
might  be  better  to  have  only  one  term  to  last  six 
years,  instead  of  four,  which  would  enable  a  Presi 
dent  to  give  all  his  time  to  the  duties  of  his  office, 
instead  of  giving  a  large  part  of  it  to  the  chase  after 
a  reelection. 

As  soon  as  Washington  determined  irrevocably  to 
retire,  he  began  thinking  of  the  " Farewell  Address" 
which  he  desired  to  deliver  to  his  countrymen  as  the 
best  legacy  he  could  bequeath.  Several  years  before 
he  had  talked  it  over  with  Madison,  with  whom  he 
was  then  on  very  friendly  terms,  and  Madison  had 
drafted  a  good  deal  of  it.  Now  he  turned  to  Hamil 
ton,  giving  him  the  topics  as  far  as  they  had  been 
outlined,  and  bidding  him  to  rewrite  it  if  he  thought 
it  desirable.  In  September,  1796,  Washington  read 
the  "Address"  before  the  assembled  Congress. 

The  " Farewell  Address"  belongs  among  the  few 


RETIRES  FROM  PUBLIC  LIFE  225 

supreme  utterances  on  human  government.  Its  au 
thor  seems  to  be  completely  detached  from  all  per 
sonal  or  local  interests.  He  tries  to  see  the  thing  as  it 
is,  and  as  it  is  likely  to  be  in  its  American  environ 
ment.  His  advice  applies  directly  to  the  American 
people,  and  only  in  so  far  as  what  he  says  has  in  a 
large  sense  human  pertinence  do  we  find  in  it  more 
than  a  local  application. 

"  Be  united  "  is  the  summary  and  inspiration  of  the 
entire  " Address."  "Be  united  and  be  American"; 
as  an  individual  each  person  must  feel  himself  most 
strongly  an  American.  He  urges  against  the  poison 
ous  effects  of  parties.  He  warns  against  the  evils 
that  may  arise  when  parties  choose  different  foreign 
nations  for  their  favorites. 

The  great  rule  of  conduct  for  us  [he  says]  in  regard  to 
foreign  Nations  is,  in  extending  our  commercial  rela 
tions,  to  have  with  them  as  little  Political  connection  as 
possible.  So  far  as  we  have  already  formed  engagements, 
let  them  be  fulfilled  with  perfect  good  faith.  Here  let  us 
stop. 

Europe  has  a  set  of  primary  interests,  which  to  us 
have  none,  or  a  very  remote  relation.  Hence  she  must 
be  engaged  in  frequent  controversies,  the  causes  of 
which  are  essentially  foreign  to  our  concerns.  Hence, 
therefore,  it  must  be  unwise  in  us  to  implicate  ourselves 
by  artificial  ties  in  the  ordinary  vicissitudes  of  her  poli 
tics,  ...  or  enmities. 

Our  detached  and  distant  situation  invites  and  en 
ables  us  to  pursue  a  different  course.  If  we  remain  one 


226  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

People,  under  an  efficient  government,  the  period  is  not 
far  off,  when  we  may  defy  material  injury  from  external 
annoyance ;  when  we  may  take  such  an  attitude  as  will 
cause  the  neutrality  we  may  at  any  time  resolve  upon 
to  be  scrupulously  respected.  When  belligerent  nations, 
under  the  impossibility  of  making  acquisitions  upon  us, 
will  not  lightly  hazard  the  giving  us  provocation  when 
we  may  choose  peace  or  war,  as  our  interest  guided  by 
justice  shall  counsel. 

Why  forego  the  advantages  of  so  peculiar  a  situation? 
Why  quit  our  own  to  stand  upon  foreign  ground?  Why, 
by  interweaving  our  destiny  with  that  of  any  part  of  Eu 
rope,  entangle  our  peace  and  prosperity  in  the  toils  of  Eu 
ropean  ambition,  rivalship,  interest,  humour  or  caprice? 

Compared  with  Machiavelli's  "Prince,"  which 
must  come  to  the  mind  of  every  one  who  reads  the 
"Farewell  Address,"  one  sees  at  once  that  the 
"Prince"  is  more  limber,  it  may  be  more  spontane 
ous,  but  the  great  difference  between  the  two  is  in 
their  fundamental  conception.  The  "Address"  is 
frankly  a  preachment  and  much  of  its  impressive- 
ness  comes  from  that  fact.  The  "Prince,"  on  the 
other  hand,  has  little  concern  with  the  moral  aspect 
of  politics  discussed  and  makes  no  pretence  of  con 
demning  immoral  practices  or  making  itself  a  cham 
pion  of  virtue.  In  other  words,  Washington  ad 
dresses  an  audience  which  had  passed  through  the 
Puritan  Revolution,  while  Machiavelli  spoke  to  men 
who  were  familiar  with  the  ideals  and  crimes  of  the 
Italian  Renaissance. 


RETIRES  FROM  PUBLIC  LIFE          227 

Washington  spread  his  gospel  so  clearly  that  all 
persons  were  sure  to  learn  and  inwardly  digest  it, 
and  many  of  them  assented  to  it  in  their  minds, 
although  they  did  not  follow  it  in  their  conduct. 
His  paramount  exhortations  —  " Be  united "  —  "Be 
Americans";  "do  not  be  drawn  into  complications 
with  foreign  powers"  —  at  times  had  a  very  real 
living  pertinence.  The  only  doctrine  which  still 
causes  controversy  is  that  which  touches  our  atti 
tude  towards  foreign  countries.  During  the  late 
World  War  we  heard  it  revived,  and  a  great  many 
persons  who  had  never  read  the  "Farewell  Address" 
gravely  reminded  us  of  Washington's  warning  against 
"entangling  alliances."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  that 
phrase  does  not  appear  in  the  "Farewell  Address" 
at  all.  It  was  first  used  by  Thomas  Jefferson  in  his 
first  Inaugural  Address,  March  4,  1801,  sixteen 
months  after  Washington  was  dead  and  buried.  No 
doubt  the  meaning  could  be  deduced  from  what 
Washington  said  in  more  than  one  passage  of  his 
"Farewell."  But  to  understand  in  1914  what  he 
said  or  implied  in  1796,  we  must  be  historical.  In 
1796  the  country  was  torn  by  conflicting  parties  for 
and  against  strong  friendship,  if  not  an  actual  alli 
ance,  between  the  United  States  on  one  side  and 
Great  Britain  or  France  on  the  other.  Any  for 
eign  alliance  that  could  be  made  in  1914,  how- 


228  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

ever,  could  not  have  been,  for  the  same  reason,  with 
either  Great  Britain  or  France.  The  aim  proposed 
by  its  advocates  was  to  curb  and  destroy  the  Ger 
man  domination  of  the  world.  Now  Washington  was 
almost  if  not  quite  the  most  actual  of  modern  states 
men.  All  his  arrangements  at  a  given  moment  were 
directed  at  the  needs  and  likelihood  of  the  moment, 
and  in  1914  he  would  have  planned  as  1914  de 
manded.  He  would  have  steered  his  ship  by  the  wind 
that  blew  then  and  not  by  the  wind  that  had  blown 
and  vanished  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  before. 
Some  one  has  remarked  that,  while  Washington 
achieved  a  great  victory  in  the  ratification  of  the  Jay 
Treaty,  that  event  broke  up  the  Federalist  Party. 
That  is  probably  inexact,  but  the  break-up  of  the 
Federalist  Party  was  taking  place  during  the  last 
years  of  Washington's  second  administration.  The 
changes  in  Washington's  Cabinet  were  most  signif 
icant,  especially  as  they  nearly  all  meant  the  change 
from  a  more  important  to  a  less  important  Secre 
tary.  Thus  John  Jay,  the  first  Secretary  of  State, 
really  only  an  incumbent  ad  interim,  gave  way  to 
Thomas  Jefferson,  who  was  replaced  by  Edmund 
Randolph  in  1794,  and  who  in  turn  was  succeeded  by 
Timothy  Pickering  in  1795.  Alexander  Hamilton  was 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  from  the  beginning  in  1789 
to  1795,  when  he  made  way  for  Oliver  Wolcott,  Jr. 


RETIRES  FROM  PUBLIC  LIFE  229 

Henry  Knox,  the  original  Secretary  of  War,  was  suc 
ceeded  by  Timothy  Pickering  in  1795,  who,  after  less 
than  a  year,  was  followed  by  James  McHenry.  Ed 
mund  Randolph  served  as  Attorney-General  in  1789 
to  1794,  then  retiring  for  William  Bradford  who,  after 
a  brief  year,  was  replaced  by  Charles  Lee.  The  Post 
master-Generalship  was  filled  from  1789  to  1791  by 
Samuel  Osgood,  and  then  by  Timothy  Pickering. 
Thus  at  the  end  of  Washington's  eight  years  we  find 
that  in  the  place  of  two  really  eminent  men,  like 
Jefferson  and  Hamilton,  he  was  served  by  Edmund 
Randolph  and  Oliver  Wolcott,  Jr.,  and  James  Mc 
Henry,  good  routine  men  at  the  best,  mediocrities  if 
judged  by  comparison  with  their  predecessors.  More 
over,  the  reputation  for  discretion  of  some  of  them, 
suffered.  Thus  Randolph  had  not  long  been  Secre 
tary  of  State  when  Joseph  Fauchet,  the  French  Min 
ister,  produced  some  papers  which  could  be  con 
strued  as  implying  that  Randolph  had  accepted 
money.  Randolph  was  known  to  be  impecunious, 
but  his  personal  honor  had  never  been  suspected. 
Washington  with  characteristic  candor  sent  Ran 
dolph  the  batch  of  incriminating  letters.  Randolph 
protested  that  he  " forgave"  the  President  and  tried 
to  exculpate  himself  in  the  newspapers.  Even  that 
process  of  deflation  did  not  suffice  and  he  had  re 
course  to  a  "Vindication,"  which  was  read  by  few 


23o  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

and  popularly  believed  to  vindicate  nobody.  Wash 
ington  is  believed  to  have  held  Randolph  as  guilt 
less,  but  as  weak  and  as  indiscreet.  He  pitied  the 
ignominy,  for  Randolph  had  been  in  a  way  Washing 
ton's  protege,  whose  career  had  much  interested  him 
and  whose  downfall  for  such  a  cause  was  doubly 
poignant. 


CHAPTER  XII 
CONCLUSION 

WASHINGTON'S  term  as  President  ended  at 
noon  on  March  4,  1797.  He  was  present  at 
the  inauguration  of  President  John  Adams  which  im 
mediately  followed.  On  the  3d,  besides  attending  to 
the  final  necessary  routine,  he  wrote  several  letters 
of  farewell  to  his  immediate  friends,  including  Henry 
Knox,  Jonathan  Trumbull,  Timothy  Pickering,  and 
James  McHenry.  To  all  he  expressed  his  grief  at 
personal  parting,  but  also  immense  relief  and  happi 
ness  in  concluding  his  public  career.  He  said,  for 
instance,  in  his  letter  to  Trumbull: 

Although  I  shall  resign  the  chair  of  government  with 
out  a  single  regret,  or  any  desire  to  intermeddle  in 
politics  again,  yet  there  are  many  of  my  compatriots, 
among  whom  be  assured  I  place  you,  from  whom  I  shall 
part  sorrowing;  because,  unless  I  meet  with  them  at 
Mount  Vernon,  it  is  not  likely  that  I  shall  ever  see  them 
more,  as  I  do  not  expect  that  I  shall  ever  be  twenty  mile3 
from  it,  after  I  am  tranquilly  settled  there.  To  tell  you 
how  glad  I  should  be  to  see  you  at  that  place  is  unneces 
sary.  To  this  I  will  add  that  it  would  not  only  give  me 
pleasure,  but  pleasure  also  to  Mrs.  Washington,  and 
others  of  the  family  with  whom  you  are  acquainted, 
and  who  all  unite,  in  every  good  wish  for  you  and  yours.1 

1  Ford,  xin,  377. 


232  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

In  a  few  days  he  returned  to  Mount  Vernon  and 
there  indulged  himself  in  a  leisurely  survey  of  the 
plantation.  He  rode  from  one  farm  to  another  and 
reacquainted  himself  with  the  localities  where  the 
various  crops  were  either  already  springing  or  would 
soon  be.  Indoors  there  was  an  immense  volume  of 
correspondence  to  be  attended  to  with  the  aid  of 
Tobias  Lear,  the  faithful  secretary  who  had  lived 
with  the  President  during  the  New  York  and  Phila 
delphia  periods.  When  the  letters  were  sorted,  many 
answers  had  to  be  written,  some  of  which  Washing 
ton  dictated  and  others  he  wrote  with  his  own  hand. 
He  admits  to  Secretary  McHenry  that,  when  he 
goes  to  his  writing  table  to  acknowledge  the  letters 
he  has  received,  when  the  lights  are  brought,  he  feels 
tired  and  disinclined  to  do  this  work,  conceiving  that 
the  next  night  will  do  as  well.  "The  next  night 
comes,"  he  adds,  "and  with  it  the  same  causes  for 
postponement,  and  so  on."  He  has  not  had  time  to 
look  into  a  book.  He  is  dazed  by  the  incessant  num 
ber  of  new  faces  which  appear  at  Mount  Vernon. 
They  come,  he  says,  out  of  "respect"  for  him,  but 
their  real  reason  is  curiosity.  He  practises  Virginian 
hospitality  very  lavishly,  but  he  cannot  endure  the 
late  hours.  So  he  invites  his  nephew,  Lawrence 
Lewis,  to  spend  as  much  time  as  he  can  at  Mount 
Vernon  while  he  himself  and  Mrs.  Washington  go  to 


CONCLUSION  233 

bed  early,  "soon  after  candle  light."  Lewis  accepted 
the  invitation  all  the  more  willingly  because  he  found 
at  the  mansion  Nelly  Custis,  a  pretty  and  sprightly 
young  lady  with  whom  he  promptly  fell  in  love  and 
married  later.  Nelly  and  her  brother  George  had 
been  adopted  by  Washington  and  brought  up  in  the 
family.  She  was  his  particular  pet.  Like  other  ma 
ture  men  he  found  the  boys  of  the  younger  genera 
tion  somewhat  embarrassing.  I  suppose  they  felt,  as 
well  they  might,  a  great  and  awful  gulf  yawning  be 
tween  them.  "I  can  govern  men,"  he  would  say, 
"but  I  cannot  govern  boys."1  With  Nelly  Custis, 
however,  he  found  it  easy  to  be  chums.  No  one  can 
forget  the  mock-serious  letter  in  which  he  wrote  to 
her  in  regard  to  becoming  engaged  and  gave  her  ad 
vice  about  falling  in  love.  The  letter  is  unexpected 
and  yet  it  bears  every  mark  of  sincerity  and  reveals 
a  genuine  vein  in  his  nature.  We  must  always  think 
of  Nelly  as  one  of  the  refreshments  of  his  older  life 
and  as  one  of  its  great  delights.  He  considered  him 
self  an  old  man  now.  His  hair  no  longer  needed 
powder;  years  and  cares  had  made  it  white.  He 
spoke  of  himself  without  affectation  as  a  very  old 
man,  and  apparently  he  often  thought,  as  he  was 
engaged  in  some  work,  "this  is  the  last  time  I  shall 
do  this."  He  seems  to  have  taken  it  for  granted  that 

1  Irving,  v,  277. 


234  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

he  was  not  to  live  long;  but  this  neither  slackened 
his  industry  nor  made  him  gloomy.  And  he  had  in 
truth  spent  a  life  of  almost  unremitting  laborious- 
ness.  Those  early  years  as  surveyor  and  Indian 
fighter  and  pathfinder  were  years  of  great  hardships. 
The  eight  years  of  the  Revolution  were  a  continu 
ous  physical  strain,  an  unending  responsibility,  and 
sometimes  a  bodily  deprivation.  And  finally  his  last 
service  as  President  had  brought  him  disgusts,  pin 
pricks  which  probably  wore  more  on  his  spirits  than 
did  the  direct  blows  of  his  opponents.  Very  likely  he 
felt  old  in  his  heart  of  hearts,  much  older  than  his 
superb  physical  form  betokened.  We  cannot  but 
rejoice  that  Nelly  Custis  flashed  some  of  the  joyful- 
ness  and  divine  insouciance  of  youth  into  the  tired 
heart  of  the  tired  great  man. 

Perhaps  the  best  offhand  description  of  Washing 
ton  in  these  later  days  is  that  given  by  an  English 
actor,  Bernard,  who  happened  to  be  driving  near 
Mount  Vernon  when  a  carriage  containing  a  man 
and  a  woman  was  upset.  Bernard  dismounted  to 
give  help,  and  presently  another  rider  came  up  and 
joined  in  the  work.  "He  was  a  tall,  erect,  well-made 
man,  evidently  advanced  in  years,  but  who  appeared 
to  have  retained  all  the  vigor  and  elasticity  resulting 
from  a  life  of  temperance  and  exercise.  His  dress  was 
a  blue  coat  buttoned  to  the  chin,  and  buckskin 


CONCLUSION  235 

breeches."  l  They  righted  the  chaise,  harnessed  the 
horse,  and  revived  the  young  woman  who,  true  to 
her  time  and  place,  had  fainted.  Then  she  and  her 
companion  drove  off  towards  Alexandria.  Washing 
ton  invited  Bernard  to  come  home  with  him  and  rest 
during  the  heat  of  the  day.  The  actor  consented. 
From  what  the  actor  subsequently  wrote  about  that 
chance  meeting  I  take  the  following  paragraphs, 
some  of  which  strike  to  the  quick: 

In  conversation  his  face  had  not  much  variety  of  ex 
pression.  A  look  of  thoughtfulness  was  given  by  the 
compression  of  the  mouth  and  the  indentations  of  the 
brow  (suggesting  an  habitual  conflict  with,  and  mastery 
over,  passion),  which  did  not  seem  so  much  to  disdain  a 
sympathy  with  trivialities  as  to  be  incapable  of  denot 
ing  them.  Nor  had  his  voice,  so  far  as  I  could  discover 
in  our  quiet  talk,  much  change  or  richness  of  intonation, 
but  he  always  spoke  with  earnestness,  and  his  eyes 
(glorious  conductors  of  the  light  within)  burned  with  a 
steady  fire  which  no  one  could  mistake  for  mere  affabil 
ity;  they  were  one  grand  expression  of  the  well-known 
line:  "I  am  a  man,  and  interested  in  all  that  concerns 
humanity."  In  one  hour  and  a  half's  conversation  he 
touched  on  every  topic  that  I  brought  before  him  with 
an  even  current  of  good  sense,  if  he  embellished  it  with 
little  wit  or  verbal  elegance.  He  spoke  like  a  man  who 
had  felt  as  much  as  he  had  reflected,  more  than  he  had 
spoken ;  like  one  who  had  looked  upon  society  rather  in 
the  mass  than  in  detail,  and  who  regarded  the  happi 
ness  of  America  but  as  the  first  link  in  a  series  of  univer 
sal  victories;  for  his  full  faith  in  the  power  of  those  re- 

1  Lodge,  n,  277. 


236  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

suits  of  civil  liberty  which  he  saw  all  around  him  led 
him  to  foresee  that  it  would  erelong,  prevail  in  other 
countries  and  that  the  social  millennium  of  Europe 
would  usher  in  the  political.  When  I  mentioned  to  him 
the  difference  I  perceived  between  the  inhabitants  of 
New  England  and  of  the  Southern  States,  he  remarked : 
11 1  esteem  those  people  greatly,  they  are  the  stamina  of 
the  Union  and  its  greatest  benefactors.  They  are  con 
tinually  spreading  themselves  too,  to  settle  and  en 
lighten  less  favored  quarters.  Dr.  Franklin  is  a  New 
Englander."  When  I  remarked  that  his  observations 
were  flattering  to  my  country,  he  replied,  with  great 
good  humor,  uYes,  yes,  Mr.  Bernard,  but  I  consider 
your  country  the  cradle  of  free  principles,  not  their 
armchair.  Liberty  in  England  is  a  sort  of  idol;  people 
are  bred  up  in  the  belief  and  love  of  it,  but  see  little  of 
its  doings.  They  walk  about  freely,  but  then  it  is  be 
tween  high  walls ;  and  the  error  of  its  government  was  in 
supposing  that  after  a  portion  of  their  subjects  had 
crossed  the  sea  to  live  upon  a  common,  they  would  per 
mit  their  friends  at  home  to  build  up  those  walls  about 
them."  * 

We  find  among  the  allusions  of  several  strangers 
who  travelled  in  Virginia  in  Washington's  later  days, 
who  saw  him  or  perhaps  even  stayed  at  Mount  Ver- 
non,  some  which  are  not  complimentary.  More  than 
one  story  implies  that  he  was  a  hard  taskmaster,  not 
only  with  the  negroes,  but  with  the  whites.  Some  of 
the  writers  go  out  of  their  way  to  pick  up  unpleasant 
things.  For  instance,  during  his  absence  from  home  a 
mason  plastered  some  of  the  rooms,  and  when  Wash- 

1  Lodge,  n,  338,  339. 


CONCLUSION  237 

ington  returned  he  found  the  work  had  been  badly 
done,  and  remonstrated.  The  mason  died.  His 
widow  married  another  mason,  who  advertised  that 
he  would  pay  all  claims  against  his  forerunner. 
Thereupon  Washington  put  in  a  claim  for  fifteen 
shillings,  which  was  paid.  Washington's  detractors 
used  this  as  a  strong  proof  of  his  harshness.  But 
they  do  not  inform  us  whether  the  man  was  unable 
to  pay,  or  whether  the  claim  was  dishonest.  Since 
the  man  paid  voluntarily  and  did  not  question  the 
Tightness  of  the  amount,  may  we  not  at  least  infer 
that  he  had  no  quarrel?  And  if  he  had  not,  who  else 
had? 

Insinuations  concerning  Washington's  lack  of 
sympathy  for  his  slaves  was  a  form  which  in  later 
days  most  of  the  references  to  his  care  of  them  took. 
But  here  also  there  are  evident  facts  to  be  taken  into 
account.  The  Abolitionists  very  naturally  were 
prejudiced  against  every  slave-owner;  they  were  also 
prejudiced  in  favor  of  every  slave.  Washington,  on 
the  contrary,  harbored  no  prepossessions  for  or 
against  the  black  man.  He  found  the  slaves  idle, 
incompetent,  lazy,  although  he  would  not  have  de 
nied  that  the  very  fact  of  slavery  caused  and  in 
creased  these  evils.  He  treated  the  negroes  justly, 
but  without  any  sentimentality.  He  found  them  in 
the  order  in  which  he  lived.  They  were  the  workmen 


238  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

of  his  plantation;  he  provided  them  with  food,  cloth 
ing,  and  a  lodging;  in  return  they  were  expected  to 
give  him  their  labor.  It  does  not  appear  that  the 
slaves  on  Washington's  plantation  endured  any 
special  hardship.  A  physician  attended  them  at  their 
master's  expense  when  they  were  sick.  That  he 
obliged  them  to  do  their  specified  work,  that  he 
punished  them  in  case  of  dishonesty,  just  as  he 
would  have  done  to  white  workmen,  were  facts 
which  he  never  would  have  thought  a  rational  person 
would  have  regarded  as  heinous.  In  his  will  he  freed 
his  slaves,  not  for  the  Abolitionist's  reason,  but  be 
cause  he  regarded  slavery  as  the  most  pernicious 
form  of  labor,  debasing  alike  the  slave  and  his  mas 
ter,  uneconomic  and  most  wasteful. 

But  in  so  general  a  matter  as  Washington's  treat 
ment  of  his  slaves,  we  must  be  careful  not  to  take  a 
solitary  case  and  argue  from  it  as  if  it  were  habitual. 
By  common  report  his  slaves  were  so  well  treated 
that  they  regretted  it  if  there  was  talk  of  transferring 
them  to  other  planters.  We  have  many  instances 
cited  which  show  his  unusual  kindness.  When  he 
found,  for  instance,  that  a  mulatto  woman,  who  had 
lived  many  years  with  one  of  the  negroes,  had  been 
transferred  to  another  part  of  his  domain  and  that 
the  negro  pined  for  her,  he  arranged  to  have  her 
brought  back  so  that  they  might  pass  their  old  age 


CONCLUSION  239 

together.  The  old  negro  was  his  servant,  Billy  Lee, 
who  suffered  an  accident  to  his  knee,  which  made 
him  a  cripple  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  This  he  spent  at 
Mount  Vernon  well  cared  for.  Washington  contin 
ued  to  the  end  the  old  custom  of  supplying  a  hogs 
head  of  rum  for  the  negroes  to  drink  at  harvest  time, 
always  premising  that  they  must  partake  of  it  spar 
ingly. 

Washington's  religious  beliefs  and  practices  have 
also  occasioned  much  controversy.  If  we  accept  his 
own  statements  at  their  plain  value,  we  must  regard 
him  as  a  Church  of  England  man.  I  do  not  discover 
that  he  was  in  any  sense  an  ardent  believer.  He  pre 
ferred  to  say  "Providence"  rather  than  "God," 
probably  because  it  was  less  definite.  He  attended 
divine  service  on  Sundays,  whenever  a  church  was 
near,  but  for  a  considerable  period  at  one  part  of  his 
life  he  did  not  attend  communion.  He  thoroughly 
believed  in  the  good  which  came  from  church-going 
in  the  army  and  he  always  arranged  to  have  a  service 
on  Sundays  during  his  campaigns.  When  at  Mount 
Vernon,  on  days  when  he  did  not  go  out  to  the  serv 
ice,  he  spent  several  hours  alone  in  meditation  in  his 
study.  The  religious  precepts  which  he  had  been 
taught  in  childhood  remained  strong  in  him  through 
life.  He  believed  moral  truths,  and  belief  with  him 
meant  putting  in  practice  what  he  professed.  While 


24o  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

he  had  imbibed  much  of  the  deistic  spirit  of  the  mid 
dle  of  the  eighteenth  century  it  would  be  inaccurate 
to  infer  that  he  was  not  fundamentally  a  Christian. 

After  Washington  withdrew  to  Mount  Vernon, 
early  in  the  spring  of  1797,  his  time  was  chiefly  de 
voted  to  agriculture  and  the  renewing  of  his  life  as  a 
planter.  He  declined  all  public  undertakings  except 
that  which  President  Adams  begged  him  to  assume 
—  the  supreme  command  of  the  army  in  case  of  the 
expected  war  with  France.  That  new  duty  undoubt 
edly  was  good  for  him,  for  it  proved  to  him  that  at 
least  all  his  official  relations  with  the  Government 
had  not  ceased,  and  it  also  served  to  cheer  the  people 
of  the  country  to  know  that  in  case  of  military  trou 
ble  their  old  commander  would  lead  them  once  more. 
Washington  gave  so  much  attention  to  this  work, 
which  could  be  in  the  earlier  stages  arranged  at 
Mount  Vernon,  that  he  felt  justified  in  accepting 
part  of  the  salary  which  the  President  allotted  to 
him.  But  the  war  did  not  come.  As  Washington 
prophesied,  the  French  thought  better  of  their  trucu- 
lence.  The  new  genius  who  was  ruling  France  had  in 
mind  something  more  grandiose  than  a  war  with  the 
American  Republic. 

On  December  10,  1799,  Washington  sent  a  long 
letter  to  James  Anderson  in  regard  to  agricultural 
plans  for  his  farm  during  the  year  1800.  He  calcu- 


CONCLUSION  241 

lates  closely  the  probable  profits,  and  specifies  the 
rotation  of  crops  on  five  hundred  and  twenty-five 
acres.  The  next  day,  December  I2th,  he  wrote  a 
short  note  to  Alexander  Hamilton,  in  regard  to  the 
organization  of  a  National  Military  Academy,  a 
matter  in  which  the  President  had  long  been  deeply 
interested.  The  day  was  stormy.  "Morning  snowing 
and  about  three  inches  drop.  Wind  at  Northeast, 
and  mercury  at  30.  Continued  snowing  till  one 
o'clock,  and  about  four  it  became  perfectly  clear. 
Wind  in  the  same  place,  but  not  hard.  Mercury  28 
at  night."  Washington,  who  scorned  to  take  any 
account  of  weather,  rode  for  five  hours  during  the 
morning  to  several  of  the  farms  on  his  plantations, 
examining  the  conditions  at  each  and  conferring  with 
the  overseers. 

On  reaching  home  he  complained  a  little  of  chilli 
ness.  His  secretary,  Tobias  Lear,  observed  that  he 
feared  he  had  got  wet,  but  Washington  protested 
that  his  greatcoat  had  kept  him  dry;  in  spite  of  which 
the  observant  Lear  saw  snow  hanging  to  his  hair  and 
remarked  that  his  neck  was  wet.  Washington  went 
in  to  dinner,  which  was  waiting,  without  changing 
his  dress,  as  he  usually  did.  "In  the  evening  he  ap 
peared  as  well  as  usual.  The  next  day,  Friday,  there 
was  a  heavy  fall  of  snow,  but  having  a  severe  cold, 
he  went  out  for  only  a  little  while  to  mark  some 


242  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

trees,  between  the  house  and  the  river  which  were 
to  be  cut  down.  During  the  day  his  hoarseness  in 
creased,  but  he  made  light  of  it,  and  paid  no  heed 
to  the  suggestion  that  he  should  take  something  for 
it,  only  replying,  as  was  his  custom,  that  he  would 
'let  it  go  as  it  came.' ' 

Mrs.  Washington  went  upstairs  to  a  room  on  the 
floor  above  to  chat  with  Mrs.  Lewis  (Nelly  Custis) 
who  had  recently  been  confined.  Washington  re 
mained  in  the  parlor  with  Lear,  and  when  the  eve 
ning  mail  was  brought  in  from  the  post-office,  they 
read  the  newspapers;  Washington  even  reading 
aloud,  as  well  as  his  sore  throat  would  allow,  any 
thing  "which  he  thought  diverting  or  interesting." 
Then  Lear  read  the  debates  of  the  Virginia  As 
sembly  on  the  election  of  a  Senator  and  Governor. 
"On  hearing  Mr.  Madison's  observations  respecting 
Mr.  Monroe,  he  appeared  much  affected,  and  spoke 
with  some  degree  of  asperity  on  the  subject,  which  I 
endeavored  to  moderate,"  says  Lear,  "as  I  always 
did  on  such  occasions.  On  his  returning  to  bed,  he 
appeared  to  be  in  perfect  health,  excepting  the  cold 
before  mentioned,  which  he  considered  as  trifling, 
and  had  been  remarkably  cheerful  all  the  evening." 

At  between  two  and  three  o'clock  of  Saturday 
morning,  December  I4th,  Washington  awoke  Mrs. 
Washington  and  told  her  that  he  was  very  unwell 


CONCLUSION  243 

and  had  had  an  ague.  She  observed  that  he  could 
hardly  speak  and  breathed  with  difficulty.  She 
wished  to  get  up  to  call  a  servant,  but  he,  fearing 
she  might  take  cold,  dissuaded  her.  When  daylight 
appeared,  the  woman  Caroline  came  and  lighted  the 
fire.  Mrs.  Washington  sent  her  to  summon  Mr. 
Lear,  and  Washington  asked  that  Mr.  Rawlins,  one 
of  the  overseers,  should  be  summoned  before  the 
Doctor  could  arrive.  Lear  got  up  at  once,  dressed 
hastily,  and  went  to  the  General's  bedside.  Lear 
wrote  a  letter  to  Dr.  Craik,  Washington's  long 
time  friend  and  physician,  and  sent  it  off  post-haste 
by  a  servant.  Mrs.  Washington  was  up.  They  pre 
pared  a  mixture  of  molasses,  vinegar,  and  butter,  but 
the  patient  could  not  swallow  a  drop;  whenever  he 
attempted  it  he  appeared  to  be  distressed,  convulsed, 
and  almost  suffocated. 

"  Mr.  Rawlins  came  in  soon  after  sunrise  and  pre 
pared  to  bleed  him.  When  the  arm  was  ready,  the 
General,  observing  that  Rawlins  appeared  to  be  agi 
tated,  said,  as  well  as  he  could  speak,  'Don't  be 
afraid/  and  after  the  incision  was  made,  he  ob 
served,  'The  orifice  is  not  large  enough.'  However, 
the  blood  ran  pretty  freely.  Mrs.  Washington,  not 
knowing  whether  bleeding  was  proper  or  not  in  the 
General's  situation,  begged  that  much  might  not  be 
taken  from  him,  lest  it  should  be  injurious,  and  de- 


244  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

sired  me  to  stop  it;  but  when  I  was  about  to  untie  the 
string,  the  General  put  up  his  hand  to  prevent  it, 
and  as  soon  as  he  could  speak,  he  said,  'More.' 
Mrs.  Washington  being  still  very  uneasy,  lest  too 
much  blood  should  be  taken,  it  was  stopped  after 
about  half  a  pint  was  taken  from  him. 

"Finding  that  no  relief  was  obtained  from  bleeding, 
and  that  nothing  would  go  down  the  throat,  I  pro 
posed  bathing  the  throat  externally  with  salvolatile 
which  was  done;  during  the  operation,  which  was 
with  the  hand,  in  the  gentlest  manner,  he'observed, 
"Tis  very  sore.'  A  piece  of  flannel  dipped  in  sal- 
volatile  was  then  put  round  his  neck.  His  feet  were 
also  bathed  in  warm  water.  This,  however,  gave  no 
relief.  In  the  meantime,  before  Dr.  Craik  arrived, 
Mrs.  Washington  requested  me  to  send  for  Dr. 
Brown,  of  Port  Tobacco,  whom  Dr.  Craik  had  rec 
ommended  to  be  called,  if  any  case  should  ever  occur 
that  was  seriously  alarming.  I  despatched  a  Mes 
senger  (Cyrus)  to  Dr.  Brown  immediately  (between 
eight  and  nine  o'clock).  Dr.  Craik  came  in  soon  af 
ter,  and  after  examining  the  General,  he  put  a  blister 
of  Cantharide  on  the  throat  and  took  some  more 
blood  from  him,  and  had  some  Vinegar  and  hot  wa 
ter  put  into  a  Teapot  for  the  General  to  draw  in  the 
steam  from  the  nozel,  which  he  did  as  well  as  he  was 
able.  He  also  ordered  sage  tea  and  Vinegar  to  be 


CONCLUSION  245 

mixed  for  a  Gargle.  This  the  General  used  as  often 
as  desired;  but  when  he  held  back  his  head  to  let  it 
run  down,  it  put  him  into  great  distress  and  almost 
produced  suffocation.  When  the  mixture  came  out 
of  his  mouth  some  phlegm  followed  it,  and  he  would 
attempt  to  cough,  which  the  Doctor  encouraged  him 
to  do  as  much  as  he  could ;  but  without  effect  —  he 
could  only  make  the  attempt. 

"  About  eleven  o'clock,  Dr.  Dick  was  sent  for.  Dr. 
Craik  requested  that  Dr.  Dick  might  be  sent  for,  as 
he  feared  Dr.  Brown  would  not  come  in  time.  A  mes 
sage  was  accordingly  despatched  for  him.  Dr.  Craik 
bled  the  General  again  about  this  time.  No  effect, 
however,  was  produced  by  it,  and  he  continued  in 
the  same  state,  unable  to  swallow  anything.  Dr. 
Dick  came  in  about  three  o'clock,  and  Dr.  Brown 
arrived  soon  after.  Upon  Dr.  Dick's  seeing  the 
General,  and  consulting  a  few  minutes  with  Dr. 
Craik,  he  was  bled  gain,  the  blood  ran  very  slowly 
and  did  not  produce  any  symptoms  of  fainting. 
Dr.  Brown  came  into  the  chamber  room  soon  after, 
and  upon  feeling  the  General's  pulse  &c.,  the  Phy 
sicians  went  out  together.  Dr.  Craik  soon  after  re 
turned.  The  General  could  now  swallow  a  little  — 
about  four  o'clock  Calomel  and  tartar  emetic  were 
administered;  but  without  any  effect.  About  half 
past  four  o'clock,  he  desired  me  to  ask  Mrs.  Wash- 


246  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

ington  to  come  to  his  bedside  —  when  he  requested 
her  to  go  down  into  his  room  and  take  from  his  desk 
two  wills  which  she  would  find  there,  and  bring  them 
to  him,  which  she  did.  Upon  looking  at  them  he 
gave  her  one,  which  he  observed  was  useless,  as  it 
was  superseded  by  the  other,  and  desired  her  to  burn 
it,  which  she  did,  and  then  took  the  other  and  put  it 
away  into  her  closet.  After  this  was  done,  I  re 
turned  again  to  his  bedside  and  took  his  hand.  He 
said  to  me,  'I  find  I  am  going,  my  breath  cannot 
continue  long;  I  believed  from  the  first  attack  it 
would  be  fatal  —  do  you  arrange  and  record  all  my 
late  military  letters  and  papers  —  arrange  my  ac 
counts  and  settle  my  books,  as  you  know  more 
about  them  than  any  one  else,  and  let  Mr.  Rawlins 
finish  recording  my  other  letters.'  He  then  asked  if 
I  recollected  anything  which  it  was  essential  for  him 
to  do,  as  he  had  but  a  very  short  time  to  continue 
with  us.  I  told  him  that  I  could  recollect  nothing, 
but  that  I  hoped  he  was  not  so  near  his  end.  He  ob 
served,  smiling,  that  he  certainly  was,  and  that,  as 
it  was  the  debt  which  we  all  must  pay,  he  looked  to 
the  event  with  perfect  resignation. 

"  In  the  course  of  the  afternoon  he  appeared  to  be  in 
great  pain  and  distress,  from  the  difficulty  of  breath 
ing,  and  frequently  changed  his  posture  in  the  bed. 
On  these  occasions  I  lay  upon  the  bed  and  endeav- 


CONCLUSION  247 

ored  to  raise  him,  and  turn  him  with  as  much  ease 
as  possible.  He  appeared  penetrated  with  gratitude 
for  my  attentions,  and  often  said,  'I  am  afraid  I 
shall  fatigue  you  too  much ' ;  and  upon  my  answer 
ing  him,  that  I  could  feel  nothing  but  a  wish  to  give 
him  ease,  he  replied,  'Well,  it  is  a  debt  we  must  pay 
to  each  other,  and  I  hope,  when  you  want  aid  of  this 
kind,  you  will  find  it.'  He  asked  when  Mr.  Lewis 
and  Washington  1  would  return.  They  were  then 
in  New  Kent.  I  told  him  I  believed  about  the  2Oth 
of  the  month.  He  made  no  reply. 

"About  five  o'clock  Dr.  Craik  came  again  into  the 
room,  and  upon  going  to  the  bedside  the  General 
said  to  him:  'Doctor,  I  die  hard,  but  I  am  not  afraid 
to  go.  I  believed,  from  my  first  attack,  that  I  should 
not  survive  it.  My  breath  cannot  last  long.'  The 
Doctor  pressed  his  hand,  but  could  not  utter  a  word. 
He  retired  from  the  bedside,  and  sat  by  the  fire  ab 
sorbed  in  grief.  The  physicians,  Dr.  Dick  and  Dr. 
Brown,  again  came  in  (between  five  and  six  o'clock), 
and  when  they  came  to  his  bedside,  Dr.  Craik  asked 
him  if  he  could  sit  up  in  the  bed.  He  held  out  his 
hand  to  me  and  was  raised  up,  when  he  said  to  the 
Physicians:  'I  feel  myself  going.  I  thank  you  for 
your  attention  —  you  had  better  not  take  any  more 
trouble  about  me;  but  let  me  go  off  quietly;  I  cannot 
1  George  Washington  Parke  Custis. 


248  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

last  long/  They  found  out  that  all  which  had  been 
done  was  of  no  effect.  He  lay  down  again,  and  all  re 
tired  except  Dr.  Craik.  He  continued  in  the  same 
position,  uneasy  and  restless,  but  without  complain 
ing;  frequently  asking  what  hour  it  was.  When  I 
helped  to  move  him  at  this,  he  did  not  speak,  but 
looked  at  me  with  strong  expressions  of  gratitude. 
The  Doctor  pressed  his  hand,  but  could  not  utter  a 
word.  He  retired  from  the  bedside,  and  sat  by  the 
fire  absorbed  in  grief.  About  eight  o'clock  the  Physi 
cians  came  again  into  the  Room  and  applied  blisters, 
and  cataplasms  of  wheat  bran,  to  his  legs  and  feet: 
but  went  out  (except  Dr.  Craik)  without  a  ray  of 
hope.  I  went  out  about  this  time,  and  wrote  a  line 
to  Mr.  Low  and  Mr.  Peter  requesting  them  to  come 
with  their  wives  (Mrs.  Washington's  granddaugh 
ters)  as  soon  as  possible. 

"From  this  time  he  appeared  to  breathe  with  less 
difficulty  than  he  had  done;  but  was  very  restless, 
constantly  changing  his  position  to  endeavor  to  get 
ease.  I  aided  him  all  in  my  power,  and  was  gratified 
in  believing  he  felt  it:  for  he  would  look  upon  me 
with  his  eyes  speaking  gratitude;  but  unable  to  utter 
a  word  without  great  distress.  About  ten  o'clock  he 
made  several  attempts  to  speak  to  me  before  he 
could  effect  it.  At  length,  he  said:  'I  am  just  going. 
Have  me  decently  buried,  and  do  not  let  my  body  be 


CONCLUSION  249 

put  into  the  Vault  in  less  than  three  days  after  I  am 
dead/  I  bowed  assent,  for  I  could  not  speak.  He 
then  looked  at  me  again,  and  said,  'Do  you  under 
stand  me?'  I  replied,  'Yes,  sir.' 

""Tis  well,'  said  he.  About  ten  minutes  before 
he  expired  his  breathing  became  much  easier;  he  lay 
quietly;  he  withdrew  his  hand  from  mine  and  felt  his 
own  pulse.  I  spoke  to  Dr.  Craik  who  sat  by  the  fire ; 
he  came  to  the  bedside.  The  General's  hand  fell  from 
his  wrist.  I  took  it  in  mine  and  laid  it  upon  my 
breast.  Dr.  Craik  put  his  hand  on  his  eyes  and  he 
expired  without  a  struggle  or  a  Sigh !  While  we  were 
fixed  in  silent  grief,  Mrs.  Washington,  who  was  sit 
ting  at  the  foot  of  the  bed,  asked,  with  a  firm  and 
collected  voice,  '  Is  he  gone? '  I  could  not  speak,  but 
held  up  my  hand  as  a  signal  that  he  was.  '  'T  is 
well,'  said  she  in  a  plain  voice.  'All  is  now  over.  I 
have  no  more  trials  to  pass  through.  I  shall  soon  fol 
low  him.'"  1 

Once  read,  honest  Tobias  Lear's  account  of  Wash 
ington's  death  will  hardly  be  forgotten.  It  has  a 
majestic  simplicity  which  we  feel  must  have  ac 
companied  Washington  in  his  last  hours.  The  homely 
sick-bed  details;  his  grim  fortitude;  his  willingness 
to  do  everything  which  the  physicians  recommended, 

1  Ford,  xiv,  246-52.  I  have  copied  Tobias  Lear's  remarkable  ac 
count  of  Washington's  death  almost  verbatim. 


250  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

not  because  he  wanted  to  live,  nor  because  he  thought 
they  would  help  him,  but  because  he  wished  to  obey. 
We  see  him  there  trying  to  force  out  the  painful 
words  from  his  constricted  throat  and  when  he  was 
unable  to  whisper  even  a  " thank  you"  for  some 
service  done,  Lear  read  the  unuttered  gratitude  in 
his  eyes.  The  faithful  Lear,  lying  on  the  outside  of 
the  bed  in  order  to  be  able  to  help  turn  Washington 
with  less  pain,  and  poor  old  Dr.  Craik,  lifelong  friend, 
who  became  too  moved  to  speak,  so  that  he  sat  off 
near  the  fire  in  silence  except  for  a  stifled  sob,  and 
Mrs.  Washington,  placed  near  the  foot  of  the  bed, 
waiting  patiently  in  complete  self-control.  She 
seemed  to  have  determined  that  the  last  look  which 
her  mate  of  forty  years  had  of  her  should  not  portray 
helpless  grief.  And  from  time  to  time  the  negro 
slaves  came  to  the  door  that  led  into  the  entry  and 
they  peered  into  the  room  very  reverently,  and  with 
their  emotions  held  in  check,  at  their  dying  master. 
And  then  there  was  a  ceasing  of  the  pain  and  the 
breathing  became  easier  and  quieter  and  Dr.  Craik 
placed  his  hand  over  the  life-tired  eyes  and  Wash 
ington  was  dead  without  a  struggle  or  even  a 
sigh. 

The  pathos  or  tragedy  of  it  lies  in  the  fact  that  all 
the  devices  and  experiments  of  the  doctors  could 
avail  nothing.  The  quinsy  sore  throat  which  killed 


CONCLUSION  251 

him  could  not  be  cured  by  any  means  then  known 
to  medical  art.  The  practice  of  bleeding,  which  by 
many  persons  was  thought  to  have  killed  him,  was 
then  so  widely  used  that  his  doctors  would  have  been 
censured  if  they  had  omitted  it.  Sixty  years  later  it 
was  still  in  use,  and  no  one  can  doubt  that  it  de 
prived  Italy's  great  statesman  of  his  chance  of  living. 
The  premonition  of  Washington  on  his  first  seizure 
with  the  quinsy  that  the  end  had  come  proved  fa 
tally  true. 

The  news  of  Washington's  death  did  not  reach 
the  capital  until  Wednesday,  December  i8th.  The 
House  immediately  adjourned.  On  the  following 
day,  when  it  reassembled,  John  Marshall  delivered 
a  brief  tribute  and  resolutions  were  passed  to  attend 
the  funeral  and  to  pay  honor  "to  the  memory  of  the 
Man,  first  in  war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts 
of  his  countrymen."  The  immortal  phrase  was  by 
Colonel  Henry  Lee,  the  father  of  General  Robert  E. 
Lee.  President  Adams,  in  response  to  a  letter  from 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  used  the  less  happy 
phrase,  "If  a  Trajan  found  a  Pliny,  a  Marcus  Au- 
relius  can  never  want  biographers,  eulogists,  or  his 
torians.  " 

During  the  days  immediately  following  Washing 
ton's  death,  preparations  were  made  at  Mount  Ver- 
non  for  the  funeral.  They  sent  to  Alexandria  for  a 


252  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

coffin  and  Dr.  Dick  measured  the  body,  which  he 
found  to  be  exactly  six  feet  three  and  one  half  inches 
in  length.  The  family  vault  was  on  the  slope  of  the 
hill,  a  little  to  the  south  of  the  house.  Mrs.  Washing 
ton  desired  that  a  door  should  be  made  for  the  vault 
instead  of  having  it  closed  up  as  formerly,  after  the 
body  should  be  deposited,  observing  that  "it  will 
soon  be  necessary  to  open  it  again/'  Mourning 
clothes  were  prepared  for  the  family  and  servants. 
The  ceremony  took  place  on  Wednesday.  There 
were  many  troops.  Eleven  pieces  of  artillery  were 
brought  down  from  Alexandria  and  a  schooner  be 
longing  to  Mr.  R.  Hamilton  came  down  and  lay  off 
Mount  Vernon  to  fire  minute  guns.  The  pall-holders 
were  Colonels  Little,  Charles  Sims,  Payne,  Gilpin, 
Ramsay,  and  Marsteller,  and  Colonel  Blackburne 
walked  before  the  corpse.  Colonel  Deneal  marched 
with  the  military.  About  three  o'clock  the  proces 
sion  began  to  move.  Colonels  Little,  Sims  and  Deneal 
and  Dr.  Dick  directed  the  arrangements  of  the  pro 
cession.  This  moved  out  through  the  gate  at  the  left 
wing  of  the  house  and  proceeded  around  in  front 
of  the  lawn  and  down  to  the  vault  on  the  right  wing 
of  the  house.  The  procession  was  as  follows:  The 
troops;  horse  and  foot;  music  playing  a  solemn  dirge 
with  muffled  drums;  the  clergy,  viz.:  the  Reverends 
Mr.  Davis,  Mr.  James  Miner,  and  Mr.  Moffatt,  and 


CONCLUSION  253 

Mr.  Addison;  the  General's  horse,  with  his  saddle, 
holsters,  and  pistols,  led  by  two  grooms,  Cyrus  and 
Wilson,  in  black;  the  body  borne  by  officers  and 
Masons  who  insisted  upon  carrying  it  to  the  grave; 
the  principal  mourners,  viz. :  Mrs.  Stuart  and  Mrs. 
Low,  Misses  Nancy  and  Sally  Stuart,  Miss  Fairfax, 
and  Miss  Dennison,  Mr.  Low  and  Mr.  Peter,  Dr. 
Craik  and  T.  Lear;  Lord  Fairfax  and  Ferdinando 
Fairfax;  Lodge  No.  23;  Corporation  of  Alexandria. 
All  other  persons,  preceded  by  Mr.  Anderson,  Mr. 
Rawlins,  the  Overseers,  etc.,  etc. 

The  Reverend  Mr.  Davis  read  the  service  and 
made  a  short  extempore  speech.  The  Masons  per 
formed  their  ceremonies  and  the  body  was  deposited 
in  the  vault.  All  then  returned  to  the  house  and 
partook  of  some  refreshment,  and  dispersed  with  the 
greatest  good  order  and  regularity.  The  remains  of 
the  provisions  were  distributed  among  the  blacks. 
Mr.  Peter,  Dr.  Craik,  and  Dr.  Thornton  tarried  here 
all  night.1 

The  Committee  appointed  by  Congress  to  plan  a 
suitable  memorial  for  Washington  proposed  a  monu 
ment  to  be  erected  in  the  city  of  Washington,  to  be 
adorned  with  statuary  symbolizing  his  career  as 
General  and  as  President,  and  containing  a  tomb  for 
himself  and  for  Mrs.  Washington.  The  latter  replied 

1  From  notes  by  T.  Lear,  Ford,  xiv,  254-55. 


254  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

to  President  Adams  that  "  taught  by  the  great  ex 
ample  which  I  have  so  long  had  before  me,  never  to 
oppose  my  private  wishes  to  the  public  will,  I  must 
consent  to  the  request  made  by  Congress,  which  you 
have  had  the  goodness  to  transmit  me,  and  in  doing 
this,  I  need  not  say,  I  cannot  say,  what  a  sacrifice  of 
individual  feeling  I  make  to  a  sense  of  public  duty." 
The  intended  monument  at  the  capital  was  never 
erected.  Martha  Washington  lies  beside  her  hus 
band  where  she  wished  to  be,  in  the  family  vault  at 
Mount  Vernon.  From  her  chamber  window  in  the 
upper  story  of  the  Mount  Vernon  house  she  could 
look  across  the  field  to  the  vault.  She  died  in  1802, 
a  woman  of  rare  discretion  and  good  sense  who,  dur 
ing  forty  years,  proved  herself  the  worthiest  com 
panion  of  the  founder  of  his  country. 

I  have  wished  to  write  this  biography  of  George 
Washington  so  that  it  would  explain  itself.  There  is 
no  need  of  eulogy.  All  eulogy  is  superfluous.  We  see 
the  young  Virginia  boy,  born  in  aristocratic  condi 
tions,  with  but  a  meagre  education,  but  trained  by 
the  sports  and  rural  occupations  of  his  home  in  per 
fect  manliness,  in  courage,  in  self-reliance,  in  re 
sourcefulness.  Some  one  instilled  into  him  moral 
precepts  which  fastened  upon  his  young  conscience 
and  would  not  let  him  go.  At  twenty  he  was  phys- 


CONCLUSION  255 

ically  a  young  giant  capable  of  enduring  any  hard 
ship  and  of  meeting  any  foe.  He  ran  his  surveyor's 
chain  far  into  the  wilderness  to  the  west  of  Mount 
Vernon.  When  hardly  a  man  in  age,  the  State  of 
Virginia  knew  of  his  qualities  and  made  him  an 
officer  in  its  militia.  At  only  twenty-three  he  was 
invited  to  accompany  General  Braddock's  staff,  but 
neither  he  nor  angels  from  heaven  could  prevent 
Braddock  from  plunging  with  typical  British  bull- 
headedness  into  the  fatal  Indian  ambush.  He  gave 
up  border  warfare,  but  did  not  cease  to  condemn  the 
inadequacy  of  the  Virginia  military  equipment  and 
its  training.  He  devoted  himself  to  the  pursuits  of  a 
large  planter,  and  on  being  elected  a  Burgess,  he  at 
tended  regularly  the  sessions  at  Williamsburg.  Wild 
conditions  which  in  his  boyhood  had  reached  almost 
to  Fauquier  County,  had  drifted  rapidly  westward. 
Within  less  than  ten  years  of  Braddock's  defeat, 
Fort  Duquesne  had  become  permanently  English 
and  the  name  of  Pittsburgh  reminded  men  of  the 
great  British  statesman  who  had  urged  on  the  fate 
ful  British  encroachment  on  the  Ohio  River.  For 
Washington  in  person,  the  lasting  effect  of  the  early 
training  and  fighting  in  western  Pennsylvania  was 
that  it  gave  him  direct  knowledge  of  the  Indian  and 
his  ways,  and  that  it  turned  his  imagination  to  think- 
>ng  out  the  problem  of  developing  the  Middle  West, 


256  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

and  of  keeping  the  connections  between  the  East  and 
the  West  strong  and  open. 

In  the  House  of  Burgesses  Washington  was  a 
taciturn  member,  yet  he  seemed  to  have  got  a  great 
deal  of  political  knowledge  and  wisdom  so  that  his 
colleagues  thought  of  him  as  the  solid  man  of  the 
House  and  they  referred  many  matters  to  him  as  if 
for  final  decision.  He  followed  political  affairs  in  the 
newspapers.  Above  all,  at  Mount  Vernon  he  heard 
all  sides  from  the  guests  who  passed  his  domain  and 
enjoyed  his  hospitality.  From  the  moment  that  the 
irritation  between  Great  Britain  and  the  Colonies 
became  bitter  he  seems  to  have  made  up  his  mind 
that  the  contention  of  the  Colonists  was  just.  After 
that  he  never  wavered,  but  he  was  not  a  sudden  or 
a  shallow  clamorer  for  Independence.  He  believed 
that  the  sober  second  sense  of  the  British  would  lead 
them  to  perceive  that  they  had  made  a  mistake. 
When  at  length  the  Colonies  had  to  provide  them 
selves  with  an  army  and  to  undertake  a  war,  he  was 
the  only  candidate  seriously  considered  for  General, 
although  John  Hancock,  who  had  made  his  peacock 
way  so  successfully  in  many  walks  of  life,  thought 
that  he  alone  was  worthy  of  the  position.  Who  shall 
describe  Washington's  life  as  Commander-in-Chief 
of  the  Colonial  forces  during  the  Revolutionary  War? 
What  other  commander  ever  had  a  task  like  his? 


CONCLUSION  257 

For  a  few  weeks  the  troops  led  by  Napoleon  —  the 
barefooted  and  ragged  heroes  of  Lodi  and  Arcola 
and  Marengo  —  were  equally  destitute,  but  victory 
brought  them  food  and  clothes  and  prosperity. 
Whereas  Washington's  men  had  no  comfort  before 
victory  and  none  after  it. 

Some  of  the  military  critics  to-day  deny  Wash 
ington's  right  to  be  ranked  among  the  great  military 
commanders  of  the  world,  but  the  truth  is  that  he 
commanded  during  nearly  eight  years  and  won  one 
of  the  supreme  crucial  wars  of  history  against  far 
superior  forces.  The  General  who  did  that  was  no 
understrapper.  The  man  whose  courage  diffused 
itself  among  the  ten  thousand  starving  soldiers  at 
Valley  Forge,  and  enabled  them  to  endure  against 
the  starvation  and  distress  of  a  winter,  may  very 
well  fail  to  be  classified  among  the  Prince  Ruperts 
and  the  Marshal  Neys  of  battle,  but  he  ranks  first  in 
a  higher  class.  His  Fabian  policy,  which  troubled 
so  many  of  his  contemporaries,  saved  the  American 
Revolution.  His  title  as  General  is  secure.  Nor 
should  we  forget  that  it  was  his  scrupulous  patriot 
ism  which  prevented  the  cropping  out  of  militarism 
in  this  country. 

Finally,  a  country  which  owed  its  existence  to  him 
chose  him  to  be  for  eight  years  its  first  President. 
He  saw  the  planting  of  the  roots  of  the  chief  organs 


258  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

of  its  government.  In  every  act  he  looked  far  for 
ward  into  the  future.  He  shunned  making  or  fol 
lowing  evil  precedents.  He  endured  the  most  viru 
lent  personal  abuse  that  has  ever  been  poured  out 
on  American  public  men,  preferring  that  to  using 
the  power  which  his  position  gave  him,  and  denatur 
ing  the  President  into  a  tyrant.  Nor  should  we  fail 
to  honor  him  for  his  insistence  on  dignity  and  a  proper 
respect  for  his  office.  His  enemies  sneered  at  him  for 
that,  but  we  see  plainly  how  much  it  meant  to  this 
new  Nation  to  have  such  qualities  exemplified.  Had 
Thomas  Jefferson  been  our  first  President  in  his 
sans-culotte  days,  our  Government  might  not  have 
outlasted  the  sans-culottist  enthusiasts  in  France.  A 
man  is  known  by  his  friends.  The  chosen  friends 
of  Washington  were  among  the  best  of  his  time 
in  America.  Hamilton,  Henry  Knox,  Nathanael 
Greene,  John  Jay,  John  Marshall  —  these  were 
some. 

Although  Washington  was  less  learned  than  many 
of  the  men  of  his  time  in  political  theory  and  history, 
he  excelled  them  all  in  a  concrete  application  of  prin 
ciples.  He  had  the  widest  acquaintance  among  men 
of  different  sorts.  He  heard  all  opinions,  but  never 
sacrificed  his  own.  As  I  have  said  earlier,  he  was  the 
most  actual  statesman  of  his  time ;  the  people  in  Vir 
ginia  came  very  early  to  regard  him  as  a  man  apart; 


CONCLUSION  259 

this  was  true  of  the  later  days  when  the  Government 
sat  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  If  they  sought 
a  reason,  they  usually  agreed  that  Washington  ex 
celled  by  his  character,  and  if  you  analyze  most 
closely  you  will  never  get  deeper  than  that.  Re 
served  he  was,  and  not  a  loose  or  glib  talker,  but  he 
always  showed  his  interest  and  gave  close  attention. 
After  Yorktown,  when  the  United  States  proclaimed 
to  the  world  that  they  were  an  independent  Repub 
lic,  Europe  recognized  that  this  was  indeed  a  Repub 
lic  unlike  all  those  which  had  preceded  it  during  an 
tiquity  and  the  Middle  Age.  Foreigners  doubted  that 
it  could  exist.  They  doubted  that  Democracy  could 
ever  govern  a  nation.  They  knew  despots,  like  the 
Prussian  King,  Frederic,  who  walked  about  the 
streets  of  Berlin  and  used  his  walking-stick  on  the 
cringing  persons  whom  he  passed  on  the  sidewalk 
and  did  not  like  the  looks  of.  They  remembered  the 
crazy  Czar,  Peter,  and  they  knew  about  the  insane 
tendencies  of  the  British  sovereign,  George.  The 
world  argued  from  these  and  other  examples  that 
monarchy  was  safe;  it  could  not  doubt  that  the  sup 
ply  of  monarchs  would  never  give  out;  but  it  had  no 
hope  of  a  Republic  governed  by  a  President.  It  was 
George  Washington  more  than  any  other  agency 
who  made  the  world  change  its  mind  and  conclude 
that  the  best  President  was  the  best  kind  of  monarch. 


26o  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

It  is  reported  that  after  he  died  many  persons 
who  had  been  his  neighbors  and  acquaintances  con 
fessed  that  they  had  always  felt  a  peculiar  sense  of 
being  with  a  higher  sort  of  person  in  his  presence :  a 
being  not  superhuman,  but  far  above  common  men. 
That  feeling  will  revive  in  the  heart  of  any  one  to-day 
who  reads  wisely  in  the  fourteen  volumes  of  "Wash 
ington's  Correspondence,"  in  which,  as  in  a  mine,  are 
buried  the  passions  and  emotions  from  which  sprang 
the  American  Revolution  and  the  American  Consti 
tution.  That  George  Washington  lived  and  achieved 
is  the  justification  and  hope  of  the  United  States. 


THE   END 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Throughout  the  index,  the  initial  W.  is  used  for  the  name  of 
George  Washington. 


Adams,  John,  his  Diary  quoted,  57 
«.;  on  committee  to  confer  with 
Howe,  79;  on  Peace  Commission, 
130;  chosen  first  Vice-President, 
176;  appoints  W.  Commander-in- 
Chief,  in  1799,  217,  240;  letter  of 
W.  to,  217;  49,  59,  155,  156,  162, 

ISO,  212,  215,  217,  231,  251,  254. 

Adams,  Samuel,  49,  57,  59,  60,  162, 
175,  176. 

Addison,  Rev.  Mr.,  253. 

Agriculturist,  W,  as  an,  37  Jf. 

Albert,  Prince,  153. 

Alleghany  Mts.,  7. 

American  Revolution,  64-126  pas 
sim;  great  extent  of  field  of  opera 
tions,  67;  really  ended  with  surren 
der  at  Yorktown,  126;  nature  and 
results  of,  126-128;  proclamation 
of  end  of  hostilities,  135;  saved  by 
W.'s  Fabian  policy,  257. 

Ames,  Fisher,  speech  on  Jay  Treaty, 
and  its  effect,  211-213. 

Anderson,  James,  240,  253. 

Andre,  John,  Clinton's  messenger 
to  Arnold,  court-martialed  and 
hanged,  no,  in. 

Annapolis  Convention,  158. 

Anti-Assumptionists.  See  State 
debts. 

Anti-Federalists,  186. 

Army,  Colonial,  at  Boston,  69  jf.; 
brought  into  order  by  W.,  72; 
lacks  powder,  72 ;  compels  evacua 
tion  of  Boston,  72, 73;  how  distrib 
uted,  76,  77;  W.  on  proper  organ 
ization  of,  80,  81;  his  influence 
over,  82,  88 ;  condition  of,  at  end  of 
1776,  84;  desertions  from,  84,  97; 


at  Valley  Forge,  100  ff.;  W.  on 
condition  of,  after  the  war,  131, 
132;  difficulties  about  back  pay, 
!33>  134.  141;  some  officers  of,  in 
trigue  to  make  W,  king,  134;  W.'s 
reply,  135;  continued  turmoil  in, 
!35;  W.'s  farewell  to  officers  of, 
!36,  137;  attitude  of  Congress  to 
ward,  139,  140. 

Arnold,  Benedict,  repulsed  at  Que 
bec,  72;  surrenders  West  Point, 
no;  in  Virginia,  122,  123;  77. 

Articles  of  Confederation,  152,  153, 
156.  And  see  States  of  the  Con 
federation. 

Assumptionists.    See  State  debts. 

Aurora.     See  Bache,  B.  F. 

Bache,  Benjamin  F.,  attacks  W.'s 
administration,  in  the  A urora,  201, 

219,  221,  222. 

Ball,  Mary,  marries  Augustine 
Washington,  I.  And  see  Washing 
ton,  Mary  (Ball). 

Barbados,  W.'s  visit  to,  9-11. 

Barbary  States,  corsairs  of,  155. 

Bard,  Dr.  Samuel,  185,  186. 

Beaumarchais,  Caron  de,  94. 

Beefsteak  and  Tripe  Club,  10. 

Belvoir,  Fairfax  estate,  7. 

Bennington,  Battle  of,  92. 

Bernard,  John,  quoted  on  W.  in  re 
tirement,  234-236. 

Blackwood's  Magazine,  3. 

Blair,  John,  161. 

Bland,  Theodorick,  letter  of  W.  to, 
131,  132. 

Bonhomme  Richard,  the.  See  Jones, 
John  Paul. 


264 


INDEX 


Boston,  port  of,  transferred  to  Sa 
lem,  58;  blockaded  by  W.,  69; 
evacuated  by  Howe,  72,  73;  W.'s 
visit  to,  as  President,  189,  190. 

Boston  Tea  Party,  58. 

Botetourt,  Norborne  Berkeley,  Lord, 

53- 

Boucher,  Rev.  Jonathan,  41. 

Braddock,  Edward,  his  career,  19, 
20;  in  America,  20;  attacks  Fort 
Duquesne,  and  is  defeated  and 
killed,  21,  22;  255. 

Bradford,  William,  229. 

Brant,  Joseph,  92. 

British  troops,  position  of,  at  end  of 
1776,  83,  84,  85;  confined  to  New 
York  City  and  Long  Island,  86; 
W.  on  maltreatment  of  prisoners 
by,  98;  field  of  operations  of, 
transferred  to  South,  107,  121- 
123;  surrender  of,  at  Yorktown, 
123  /• 

Brown,  Dr.,  244,  245,  247,  248. 

Bunker  Hill,  Battle  of,  65,  68. 

Burgoyne,  John,  takes  Ticonderoga, 
91;  defeated  at  Bennington,  92; 
surrenders  to  Gates  at  Saratoga, 

93- 

Burke,  Edmund,  55,  62,  120. 
Bute,  John  Stuart,  Earl  of,  29,  49. 
Butler,  Pierce,  162. 
Byrd,  William,  letter  of  W.  to,  20, 

21. 

Calvert,  Nelly,  42. 

Cambridge,  W.  takes  command  of 
army  at,  65;  W.'s  headquarters 
at,  69. 

Canada,  and  Wolfe's  victory  at 
Quebec,  28. 

Canova,  Antonio,  statue  of  W.  by, 
148. 

Capital,  national,  question  of  loca 
tion  of,  182-185. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  17. 

Carroll,  Daniel,  161. 

Cavour,  Camillo,  Count  di,  30,  251. 

Chamberlayne,  Major,  33. 


Channing,  Edward,  History  of  the 
U.S.,  in  n. 

Chantrey,  Sir  F.  L.,  statue  of  W., 
148. 

Cherry-tree  story,  absurdity  of,  2. 

Cincinnati,  Society  of  the,  public 
feeling  against,  159;  W.  resigns 
presidency  of,  159. 

Clark,  Major,  10. 

Clinton,  George,  Governor  of  New 
York,  136,  199. 

Clinton,  Sir  Henry,  succeeds  Howe  as 
Commander-in-Chief,  105;  takes 
troops  to  New  York,  106;  was  he 
responsible  for  bribing  Arnold? 
109,  no;  W.'s  criticism  of,  118, 
119;  93,  121,  123. 

Clive,  Robert,  Lord,  28. 

Clymer,  George,  161. 

Colonies,  effect  of  Seven  Years'  War 
on,  29;  opposition  to  taxation  in, 
49  ff.\  at  outbreak  of  war,  67;  di 
versity  in  origin  and  customs,  67, 
68;  increasing  urgency  of  demand 
for  independence  in,  75;  relations 
of,  with  England,  in  1763,  47; 
how  affected  by  the  Imperial 
Spirit,  47,  48;  in  1770,  53,  54;  at 
beginning  of  Revolution,  66;  lack 
of  ardor  for  Independence,  84. 

Committees  of  Correspondence,  57, 

58- 

Compromises  of  the  Constitution. 
See  Representation,  Slave  trade, 
Slavery. 

Concord,  Battle  of,  64. 

Congress  of  the  U.S. : 

First:  W.'s  first  address  to,  179 ; 
votes  to  assume  state  debts  and 
change  location  of  capital,  182- 
185. 

Fourth:  Jay  Treaty  ratified  by 
Senate,  210;  bill  to  carry  out 
treaty  provisions  passed  by  House, 
210-213. 

Sixth:  revives  rank  of  Com 
mander-in-Chief  for  W.,  217;  and 
W.'s  death,  251,  253,  254. 


INDEX 


265 


Connecticut,  population  of,  in  1775, 
68. 

Constitution  of  the  U.S.,  in  the  mak 
ing,  164-168;  promulgated,  168, 
169;  W.'s  views  of,  170,  171,  172; 
ratified  by  States,  173-175;  oppo 
sition  to,  in  N.Y.  and  Virginia, 
174. 

Constitutional  Convention,  call  for, 
158;  first  meeting  of,  160;  mem 
bers  of,  160-162;  W.  President  of, 
161,  163;  proceedings  of,  secret, 
163;  divers  questions  discussed, 
164-168,  169,  170. 

Continental  Congress: 

First:  members  of,  59;  work  of, 
59-61;  adopts  Declaration  of 
Rights,  60;  importance  of,  as  a 
symbol,  61. 

Second:  elects  W.  Commander- 
in-Chief,  64;  sectional  intrigues 
in,  74;  W.  quoted  on,  75;  appoints 
committee  to  confer  with  Howe, 
79;  and  W.'s  "doleful  reports," 
81;  removes  to  Baltimore,  85; 
method  of  conducting  the  war,  90; 
W.'s  farewell  reception  by,  and 
address  to,  137-139;  post-war 
attitude  of,  toward  the  army,  dis 
cussed,  141,  142;  powers  of,  lim 
ited  by  Articles  of  Confederation, 
J52,  153;  its  weakness,  153;  lack 
of  unanimity  in,  155;  rejects  Span 
ish  treaty,  155;  orders  first  elec 
tion  under  Constitution,  175. 

Conway,  Thomas,  and  the  Cabal, 
112,  1  13;  letters  of,  to  W.,  113196. 

Conway  Cabal,  The,  112-114,  116, 
117. 

Cornwallis,  Charles,  Earl,  surrenders 
at  Yorktown,  123. 

Cowpens,  Battle  of  the,  122. 

Craik,  Dr.  James,  attends  W.  in  his 
last  illness,  243  /.;  253. 

Critical  Period  of  American  History, 


Custis,  Daniel  P.,  33,  34. 

Custis,  Eleanor,  W.'s  affection  for, 


233»  234-  And  see  Lewis,  Eleanor 

(Custis). 

Custis,  George  W.  P.,  233,  247. 
Custis,  John  Parke,   W.'s  step-son, 

40-42;  104. 
Custis,   Mrs.  Martha   (Dandridge), 

widow  of  D.  P.  Custis,  is  courted 

by  W.,  33,  34,  and  marries  him, 

35.    And  see  Washington,  Martha 

(Custis). 
Custis,  Martha,  W.'s  step-daughter, 

40,  41. 

Dandridge,  Francis,  letter  of  W.  to, 

5i,  52- 

Davis,  Rev.  Mr.,  252,  253. 

Deane,  Silas,  sent  to  enlist  aid  of 
France,  94;  his  unauthorized  prom 
ises  to  Ducoudray,  95,  and  La 
fayette,  99. 

Declaration  of  Independence,  f8, 
191. 

"Declaration  of  Rights,"  60. 

Delaware  River,  W.'s  crossing  of, 
85,  86. 

Democracy  in  the  U.S.,  contrasted 
with  earlier  types,  178. 

Democratic  Party,  186. 

Dent,  Elizabeth,  31. 

Dick,  Dr.,  245,  247,  248,  252. 

Dickinson,  John,  161. 

Dinwiddie,  Robert,  sends  W.  on 
mission  to  French,  14;  sends  ex 
pedition  under  Fry  to  take  Du- 
quesne,  15;  16,  17,  18,  20,  21. 

Dorchester,  Guy  Carleton,  Lord, 
208. 

Dorchester  Heights,  occupied  by 
Americans,  73. 

Ducoudray,  M.,  95. 

Election,  first,  under  Constitution, 
175,  176. 

Ellsworth,  Oliver,  59,  161. 

England,  expeditions  planned  by, 
19 '  /.',  effect  of  Chatham's  ad 
ministration  on  power  and  pres 
tige  of,  27,  28;  relations  with  Colo- 


266 


INDEX 


nies  in  1763,  47;  the  Imperial 
Spirit  in,  47  ff. ;  measures  impos 
ing  taxation  on  Colonies,  49  jf.\ 
division  of  opinion  in,  in  1770,  53, 
54,  55;  Hessians  in  service  of,  76; 
effect  of  sea-power  of,  84;  plans 
for  campaign  of  1777,  90,  91; 
sends  Commission  to  treat  for 
peace,  109,  120;  reconstruction  of 
government  in,  after  Yorktown, 
130;  and  W.'s  proclamation  of 
neutrality  (1789),  204;  hatred  of, 
in  U.S.,  and  the  Jay  Treaty, 
208  ff.-,  threat  of  war  with,  208, 
209;  and  the  U.S.  in  1796  and 
1914,  227,  228.  And  see  Paris, 
Treaty  of  (1783). 

England  and  France,  rivalry  be 
tween  in  North  America,  12,  13; 
actually  at  war,  19;  effect  of 
Wolfe's  victory  at  Quebec,  28; 
war  between  (1789),  193;  diffi 
culty  in  maintaining  neutrality 
of  U.S.,  193 /. 

"Entangling  alliances,"  authorship 
of  the  phrase,  227. 

Estaing,  Charles  H.,  Count  d', 
brings  French  fleet  to  America, 
108. 

Excise  tax,  on  distilled  spirits,  189; 
and  the  Whiskey  Insurrection, 
218. 

Fairfax,  Bryan,  letter  of  W.  to,  62, 
63:  253. 

Fairfax,  Sally,  31. 

Fairfax,  Thomas,  Lord,  employs  W. 
to  survey  his  estate,  5;  7. 

Farewell  Address,  the,  224  ff.-  decla 
rations  of,  how  far  applicable  in 
1914,  227,  228. 

Fauchet,  Joseph,  229. 

Fauntleroy,  Betsy,  30. 

Fauquier,  Francis,  35. 

Federalist,  The,  162. 

Federalist  Party,  break-up  of,  228; 
186,  187. 

Fitzsimmons,  Thomas,  161. 


Fort  Duquesne,  built  by  French,  13; 
unsuccessfully  attacked  by  Brad- 
dock,  21  ff.-,  renamed  Fort  Pitt, 
34,  255. 

Fort  Necessity,  surrender  of,  16,  17. 

Fox,  Charles  James,  55. 

France,  steps  toward  alliance  with, 
94  ff. ;  effect  of  victory  at  Saratoga 
in,  99;  treaty  with,  99  and  n.;  re 
sults  of  alliance  on  American 
commerce  and  privateering,  108; 
sends  fleet  to  America,  108;  effect 
in  England  of  alliance  with,  119; 
and  W.  's  proclamation  of  neutral 
ity,  204;  effect  of  feeling  of  grati 
tude  to,  in  U.S.,  205;  later  rela 
tions  with,  215,  216;  and  the  U.S. 
in  1796  and  1914,  227,  228.  And 
see  England  and  France. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  on  committee 
to  confer  with  Howe,  79;  on  Peace 
Commission,  130;  quoted,  173;  21, 
155,  1 60,  161,  201,  236. 

Frederick  the  Great,  259. 

Freedom  of  speech,  W.  and,  222, 
223. 

Freemasons,  at   W.'s  funeral,  253. 

French,  westward  and  southward 
progress  of,  13;  build  Fort  Du 
quesne,  13. 

French  Committee  of  Public  Safety, 
Monroe's  letter  to,  216. 

French  and  Indian  War.  See  Seven 
Years'  War. 

French  Revolution,  reaction  of,  in 
U.S.,  193 /• 

Freneau,  Philip,  and  his  National 
Gazette,  encouraged  by  Jefferson, 

2OO,  2OI,  219,  22O. 

Fry,  Colonel,  15. 

Gage,  Thomas,  military  and  civil 
governor  of  Boston,  61 ;  W.  quoted 
on  his  conduct,  63;  recalled,  72. 

Gallatin,  Albert,  opposes  Jay  Treaty, 

2IO,  211. 

Gates,  Horatio,  Adjutant-General, 
71;  defeats  Burgoyne  at  Saratoga, 


INDEX 


267 


92,  93;  ambitious  to  supplant  W., 

114;  112. 

Genet,  Edmond  Charles,  mission  of, 
to  U.S.,  194^".;  would  appeal  to 
people  over  government,  198,  205; 
snubbed  by  Jefferson,  198;  his  re 
call  requested,  199. 

George  II,  18. 

George  III,  dismisses  Pitt,  29;  and 
the  British  Empire,  48;  makes 
North  Prime  Minister,  54;  effect 
of  events  of  1778  on,  119;  and  of 
the  failure  of  the  Commission  on 
Reconciliation,  120;  60,  130,  153, 

259. 

Georgetown,  proposed  as  seat  of 
national  capital,  184. 

Georgia,  only  colony  unrepresented 
in  First  Continental  Congress, 
59;  British  victories  in,  122;  165. 

Gerry,  Elbridge,  on  X.Y.Z.  mission 
to  France,  215;  161,  168,  169. 

Giles,  William  B.,  and  newspaper 
attacks  on  W.,  219,  221. 

Gist,  Christopher,  14. 

Gladstone,  W.  E.,  quoted,  173. 

Gorham,  Nathaniel,  161. 

Great  Britain.    See  England. 

Great  Meadows.  See  Fort  Neces 
sity. 

Greene,  Nathanael,  commands  in 
South,  122;  no,  162,  163,  258. 

"Half- King,  the."  See  Thanaca- 
rishon. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  influence  of, 
ensures  ratification  of  Constitu 
tion  in  N.Y.,  174;  Secretary  of 
Treasury,  181,  228,  229;  opposi 
tion  to,  181,  182;  favors  "Assump 
tion,"  182, 1 83;  obtains  Jefferson's 
support  for  compromise,  183,  184; 
his  political  status,  187;  his  pro 
tective  tariff,  1 88;  his  measures 
tended  to  centralization,  189,  192; 
quoted,  on  the  French  Revolu 
tion,  197,  198;  W.  seeks  to  keep 
peace  between  Jefferson  and,  199, 


200;  attacked  by  Freneau,  200; 
attacks  Jefferson  in  newspapers, 
201;  urges  W.  to  accept  second 
term,  201 ;  and  the  Whiskey  In 
surrection,  218;  and  the  Farewell 
Address,  224;  59,  160,  167,  168, 
180,  195,  208,  210,  217,  241,  258. 

Hancock,  John,  President  of  Con 
gress,  64;  letter  of  W.  to,  80,  8i; 
Governor  of  Massachusetts,  and 
W.'s  visit  to  Boston,  189,  190;  64, 
256. 

Harlem,  Heights  of,  army  stationed 
on,  80. 

Harrison,  Benjamin,  letter  of  W.  to, 

143- 

Hay,  Anthony,  53. 

Henry,  Patrick,  quoted,  50;  opposed 
to  Constitution,  174;  59,  60,  162. 

Herkimer,  Nicholas,  92. 

Hessians,  in  British  army,  76;  de 
feated  at  Trenton,  86. 

Hortalaz  et  Cie,  94. 

Houdon,  Jean  A.,  statue  of  W.,  148. 

House  of  Representatives,  represen 
tation  of  States  in,  167. 

Howe,  Richard,  Lord,  takes  fleet  to 
N.Y.,  76;  72,  83. 

Howe,  Sir  William,  evacuates  Bos 
ton,  72,  73;  fruitless  peace  over 
tures  of,  79;  in  Phila.  (1777-78), 
104,  105;  succeeded  by  Clinton, 
105;  74,  78,  87,  91. 

Humphreys,  Colonel,  as  Chamber 
lain  at  President's  receptions, 
180,  181. 

Imperial  Spirit,  effect  of,  on  relations 
between  England  and  Colonies,  47, 
48;  revived  by  events  of  1778, 119. 

Independence  Hall,  Phila.,  160. 

Indians,  surprise  attack  by,  21,  22; 
difficulties  of  W.'s  administration 
with,  190,  191. 

Ingersoll,  Jared,  161. 

Irving,  Washington,  Life  of  Wash 
ington,  quoted,  181,  185,  186,  195, 
217,  233. 


268 


INDEX 


Jackson,  Robert,  24. 

Jacobin  Club,  193. 

Jay,  John,  on  Peace  Commission, 
130;  concludes  treaty  with  Spain, 
155;  appointed  Chief  Justice,  186; 
mission  of,  to  England  in  1794-95, 
207;  his  character,  207;  prejudice 
against,  in  U.S.,  208;  Secretary  of 
State,  228;  letters  of  W.  to,  142, 
157;  59,  162,  1 80,  258.  And  see 
Jay  Treaty. 

Jay  Treaty,  the,  negotiated,  207, 
208,  209;  opposition  of  Anti- 
Federalists  to,  209;  ratified  by 
Senate,  210;  violent  struggle  over, 
in  House,  210-213;  how  the  con 
troversy  was  settled,  213;  effect 
of,  214;  and  the  Federalist  Party, 
228. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  A  Summary 
View,  60;  Secretary  of  State,  181, 
1 86,  192,  228,  229;  interview  with 
Hamilton  on  Assumption,  etc., 
183-185;  most  aggressive  of  Dem 
ocrats,  187,  191;  rivalry  with 
Hamilton,  192;  and  the  French 
Revolution,  193;  and  Citizen  Ge 
net,  194, 195, 198;  W.  seeks  to  keep 
peace  between  Hamilton  and, 
199,  200;  and  Freneau's  attacks 
on  W.,  200,  219,  220,  221;  in 
trigues  against  Hamilton,  200, 
201 ;  urges  W.  to  accept  second 
term,  201,  202;  resigns  as  Secre 
tary  of  State,  206;  59,  155,  160, 
161,  162,  180,  181,  207,  227,  258. 

Johnson,  W.  S.,  168. 

Joncaire,  M.,  14. 

Jones,  John  Paul,  120,  121. 

Jumonville,  M.  de,  15,  18. 

Kalb,  Baron  Johann  de,  95,  100. 

King,  Rufus,  161,  167,  168. 

Knox,  Henry,  Secretary  of  War, 
181,  229;  letters  of  W.  to,  170, 
171,  203;  95,  123,  124,  136,  217, 
231,  258. 

Kosciuszko,  Tadeusz,  95. 


Lafayette,  Gilbert  Motier,  Marquis 
de,  joins  W.  's  staff,  99;  and 
Charles  Lee,  at  Monmouth,  115; 
letters  of  W.  to,  143, 144, 145, 170, 
171,  172;  no,  123. 

Lansing,  John,  161. 

Laurens,  Henry,  letters  of  W.  to, 
101-103,  117, 118. 

Lear,  Tobias,  secretary  to  W.,  148; 
quoted,  242;  his  account  of  W.'s 
last  hours,  243-249;  notes  on  W.'s 
funeral,  252,  253;  232,  241,  250. 

Lee,  Billy  (slave),  238,  239. 

Lee,  Charles,  appointed  Major- 
General,  70,  71;  at  Monmouth, 
106,  115;  censured  by  W.,  106, 
115,  1 16;  early  career  of,  114,  115; 
court-martialed,  and  leaves  the 
army,  n6;  anecdote  of,  116  n.; 
65,  128. 

Lee,  Charles,  Attorney-General,  229. 

Lee,  Henry,  author  of  phrase,  "First 
in  war,"  etc.,  251;  letter  of  W.  to, 

221,  222. 

Lee,  Richard  H.,  letters  of  W.  to,  96, 

147;  163. 

Lewis,  Mrs.  Eleanor  (Custis),  242. 
Lewis,  Lawrence,  and  Miss  Custis, 

232,  233;  247. 
Lexington,  Battle  of,  63. 
Lillo,  George,  George  Barnwett,  10, 

n. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  149. 
Lincoln,       Benjamin,       surrenders 

Charleston,    S.C.,    122;    receives 

surrender  of  British  at  Yorktown, 

125;  123. 

Livingston,  Robert  R.,  59;  177. 
Lodge,  H.   C.,  George  Washington, 

quoted,  15,  17,  220,  235,  236. 
Long  Island,  Battle  of,  77,  78. 
Louis  XVI,  execution  of,  193;  94,  99. 
Low-Land  Beauty,  the,  30. 
Loyalists,  in  the  Colonies,  61,  62; 

during  and  after   the  war,   127, 

128. 

McClellan,  George  B.,  82. 


INDEX 


269 


McClurg,  James,  162. 

McHenry,  James,  Secretary  of  War, 
229;  letter  of,  to  W.,  217;  161, 
231,  232. 

McKean,  Thomas,  59. 

MacKenzie,  Robert,  letter  of  W.  to, 
63. 

Machiavelli,  Niccolo,  The  Prince, 
and  W.'s  Farewell  Address,  226. 

Madison,  James,  opposes  Jay 
Treaty,  210;  and  the  Farewell 
Address,  224;  letter  of  W.  to, 
158;  156,  159,  160,  161,  163,  165, 
168,  194,  242. 

Marie  Antoinette,  execution  of,  193. 

Marshall,  John,  Life  of  Washington, 
quoted,  28,  136,  137-139;  on 
X.Y.Z.  mission  to  France,  215; 
47,  251,  258. 

Mason,  George,  plan  of  association, 
52,  53;  letter  to  W.,  56;  letter  of 
W.  to,  56;  161,  168,  169. 

Massachusetts,  leads  in  opposing 
acts  of  British  Crown,  49;  char 
ter  of,  suspended,  58,  59;  popu 
lation  of,  in  1775,  67,  68;  and 
Virginia,  jealousy  between,  64; 
freed  from  British  troops,  74. 

Mather,  W.,  The  Young  Man's 
Companion,  4. 

Meil,  Mrs.,  30,  31. 

Mifflin,  Thomas,  of  the  Conway 
Cabal,  116;  138,  139,  161. 

Military  dictatorship  under  W.t 
fear  of,  141,  142  ,'154. 

Militia,  W.  quoted  on,  8l. 

Miner,  Rev.  James,  252. 

Mississippi  River,  Lower,  closed  to 
Americans  by  treaty  with  Spain, 

155. 

Moffatt,  Rev.  Mr.,  252. 
Monarchy,  fears  of  reversion  to,  142. 
Monmouth,  Battle  of,  106. 
Monongahela  River,  13. 
Monroe,  James,  Minister  to  France, 

recalled  by  W.,  216;  his  letter  to 

Committee  of  Public  Safety,  116; 

242. 


Montcalm,  Louis  Joseph,  Marquis 
de,  28. 

Montgomery,  Richard,  at  Quebec, 
71,  72;77- 

Morgan,  Daniel,  122. 

Morris,  Gouverneur,  161,  167,  168, 
207. 

Morris,  Robert,  letter  to  W.,  88;  161. 

Morris,  Roger,  32,  80. 

Morristown,  winter  quarters  at,  89. 

Mossum,  Rev.  Peter,  35. 

Mount  Vernon,  inherited  by  Law 
rence  Washington,  5;  hospitality 
of,  7»  45?  W.  manager  of,  12;  inher 
ited  by  W.,  33;  a  model  plantation 
of  its  kind,  39,  43,  44;  W.  returns 
to,  after  the  war,  139;  his  life  at, 
146;  his  last  days  at,  232  /.;  his 
funeral  at,  251-253. 

Napoleon  I,  218,  240. 

National  Gazette,  220,  222. 

Neal,  John,  quoted,  3. 

Neutrality,  Proclamation  of,  gives 
offense  to  both  England  and 
France,  204;  the  only  rational 
course,  205. 

New  England,  manufacturing  in, 
68;  freed  from  British  troops,  74. 

New  Jersey,  155. 

New  York  City,  W.'s  headquarters 
at,  76;  Howe's  fleet  arrives  at,  76; 
loyalist  sentiment  in,  78,  79,  121; 
British  troops  return  to,  105,  106; 
W.'s  farewell  to  officers  at,  136, 
137;  W.  inaugurated  as  President 
at,  176, 177;  ceases  to  be  national 
capital,  182  ff. 

New  York  State,  fails  to  choose 
electors  in  1788,  175. 

North,  Frederick,  Lord,  Prime  Min 
ister,  54;  his  subservience  to  the 
King,  54,  55;  retires  after  York- 
town,  130;  60,  61. 

North  Carolina,  British  victories 
in,  122. 

Northwest,  the,  W.'s  vision  of  de 
velopment  of,  144,  145. 


270 


INDEX 


Office-seekers,  W.  and,  180. 
O'Hara,  General,  125. 
Ohio  River,  13. 
Oriskany,  Battle  of,  92. 
Osgood,  Samuel,  229. 
Otis,  James,  49. 

Pall-holders  at  W.'s  funeral,  252. 

Paris,  Treaty  of  (1763),  28,  29. 

Paris,  Treaty  of  (1783),  130,  131; 
W.  quoted  on,  131. 

Parliament,  passes  and  repeals 
Stamp  Act,  49;  lays  duties  on 
paper,  tea,  etc.,  49;  other  irritat 
ing  measures  passed  by,  53,  58; 
enacts  penal  laws,  58,  59. 

"Parsons  Cause,  The,"  50. 

Parties,  in  W.'s  first  term,  186,  187. 

Peale,  Charles,  portrait  of  W.,  148, 
150. 

Peale,  Rembrandt ,  portrait  of  W. ,  1 48 . 

Pearson,  Captain,  120. 

Pendleton,  Edmund,  59. 

Pennsylvania,  population  of,  in  1775, 
68;  58,  155. 

Peter  the  Great,  259. 

Philadelphia, non-importation  agree 
ment  of  merchants  of,  52;  Con 
tinental  Congresses  meet  at,  59, 
64;  W.  at,  75  ff.\  British  troops 
at,  in  1777-78,  104,  105;  W.  takes 
possession  of,  106;  to  be  national 
capital  for  ten  years,  183,  185; 
Genet  at,  196. 

Philipse,  Frederick,  31. 

Philipse,  Mary,  31,  32. 

Pickering,  Timothy,  Cabinet  offices 
held  by,  228,  229;  231. 

Pinckney,  Charles,  59,  162. 

Pinckney,  Charles  C.,  on  X.Y.Z. 
mission  to  France,  215,  216;  59, 
162,  165,  166,  217. 

Pitt,  William,  Earl  of  Chatham, 
effect  of  his  accession  to  power, 
27,  28;  dismissed  by  George  III, 
29;  his  last  appearance  in  the 
Lords,  119,  and  death,  120. 

Pitt,  William,  the  younger,  55,  62. 


Pittsburgh,  on  site  of  Fort  Du- 
quesne,  34,  255. 

Plassey,  Battle  of,  48. 

Portraits  of  W.,  148,  149,  150. 

President,  discussion  as  to  term  and 
method  of  election  of,  167,  168; 
W.'s  view  of  office  of,  178;  W.'s 
example  as  preventive  of  third 
term  for,  223,  224. 

Press,  the,  virulence  and  indecency 
of,  2igff. 

Princeton,  Battle  of,  86,  87. 

Privateering,  effect  of  French  Alli 
ance  on,  108,  120,  121. 

Protective  tariff,  Hamilton's,  1 88. 

Pulaski,  Count  Casimir,  95,  97. 

Quebec,  Battle  of,  28,  48;  abortive 
attack  on,  71,  72;  persistence  in 
project  of  capturing,  77. 

Quincy,  Josiah,  49. 

Rail,  Colonel,  86. 

Randolph,  Edmund,  Attorney-Gen 
eral,  181,  1 86,  229;  Secretary  of 
State,  206,  228;  his  "Vindication," 
229,  230;  letter  of  W.  to,  208, 
209;  59,  161,  169,  193. 

Randolph,  Peyton,  59. 

Rawlins,  Mr.,  243,  253. 

Reconciliation,  Commission  on,  109, 
120. 

Representation  of  States  in  Con 
gress,  question  of,  settled  by  com 
promise,  167. 

Republicans,  186. 

Revolutionary  War.  See  American 
Revolution. 

Robinson,  Beverly,  31. 

Robinson,  Mr.,  Speaker  of  the  House 
of  Burgesses  (Va.),  quoted,  36. 

Rochambeau,  Jean  B.  D.  de  Vi- 
meure,  Count  de,  122,  125. 

Rockingham,  Charles  Wentworth, 
Marquis  of,  130. 

Rodney,  George,  Lord,  153. 

Rutledge,  Edward,  on  committee  to 
confer  with  Howe,  79;  59. 


INDEX 


271 


Rutledge,  John,  59,  162,  168. 

St.  Clair,  General,  191. 

St.  Leger,  Barry,  91. 

Saratoga,  Battle  of,  Burgoyne  de 
feated  in,  93 ;  effect  of,  in  France,  99. 

Schuyler,  Philip,  65. 

Senate  of  U.S.,  representation  of 
States  in,  167. 

Seven  Years'  War,  27  ff. ;  effect  of,  29. 

Shays,  Daniel,  158. 

Shays's  Rebellion,  causesof,  157, 158. 

Shelburne,  William  Petty,  Earl  of, 
130. 

Sherman,  Roger,  59,  161,  168. 

Shirley,  William,  32. 

Slave  labor,   W.'s  view  of,  38;  68. 

Slave  trade,  question  of,  settled  by 
compromise,  165,  166. 

Slavery,  why  W.  disapproved  of,  38, 
39,  238;  question  of,  settled  by 
compromise,  164,  165. 

Slaves,  W.'s  relations  with,  38,  237- 
239;  number  of,  in  Colonies,  in 
1775,  68. 

South  Carolina,  population  of,  in 
1775,  68;  British  victories  in,  122; 
165. 

Sparks,  Jared,  his  Life  of  Washing 
ton,  defects  of,  3;  quoted,  113,  116 
and  «.,  146. 

Spearing,  Ann,  31. 

Stamp  Act,  49,  51,  52,  66. 

Stark,  John,  defeats  Burgoyne  at 
Bennington,  92. 

State  debts,  assumption  of,  by 
national  government,  how  secured, 
182-185;  favored  by  W.,  188. 

State  rights,  problem  of,  167;  a  fun 
damental  subject  of  difference, 
187. 

States  of  the  Confederation,  W.'s 
farewell  letter  to  governors  of, 
135;  after  the  Revolution,  152, 
156;  their  relations  to  one  another, 
I52i  J53»  lack  of  coherence  among, 
J54,  *55;  foreign  relations  of, 
ignominious,  155;  delegates  of,  in 


Constitutional  Convention,  160- 
162;  ratification  by,  173,  174. 
And  see  Paris,  Treaty  of  (1783). 

Statues  of  W.,  148. 

Steuben,  Baron  Frederick  W.  von, 
95,  no,  in. 

Stone,  F.  D.,  Struggle  for  the  Dela 
ware,  quoted,  100,  101. 

Strong,  Caleb,  161,  168. 

Stuart,  Gilbert,  portraits  of  W.,  149. 

Sulgrave,  English  home  of  Washing 
ton  family,  I. 

Sullivan,  John,  defeated  on  Long 
Island,  77. 

Talleyrand-Perigord,  Charles  M.  de, 

and  the  X.Y.Z.  mission,  216. 
Tariff,  W.'s  view  of  a,  189. 
Tarleton,  Sir  Banastre,  122. 
"Taxation  without  representation," 

55,  57- 
Thanacarishon,  Seneca  chief,  quoted, 

on  W.,  14,  15. 
Thomas,  John,  71. 
Ticonderoga,  taken  by  Burgoyne,  91. 
Tobacco-raising  in  Virginia,  39,  40. 
Toner,  J.  M.,  The  Daily  Journal  of 

George  Washington,  II  n. 
Trenton,  Battle  of,  and  its  effect, 

86,  87. 
Trumbull,  Jonathan,  letter  of  W.  to, 

231. 
Fryon,  William,  79. 

United  States,  debt  of  Confedera 
tion  turned  over  to,  182;  excite 
ment  in,  over  Citizen  Genet, 
l95ff-'<  anomalous  position  of,  be 
tween  France  and  England,  205, 
206;  the  first  country  in  which 
free  speech  existed,  222;  effect  of 
W.'s  example  on  world's  opinion 
of,  259. 

United  States  Bank,  189. 

Valley   Forge,   American    army  in 

winter  quarters  at,  100  ff.,  118. 
Van  Braam,  Jacob,  14. 


272 


INDEX 


Vergennes,  Charles  Gravier,  Count 
de,  favors  cause  of  the  Colonies, 
94;  secures  cooperation  of  Spain, 
995  142. 

Vernon,  Edward,  Admiral,  5,  9. 

Victoria,  Queen,  153. 

Virginia,  effect  in,  of  Braddock's 
defeat,  24,  25;  in  the  1750*5,  44, 
45;  fox-hunting  and  horse-racing, 
45,  46;  opposition  in,  to  acts  of  the 
Crown,  50,  51;  state  of  opinion 
in,  55r  56;  population  of,  in  1775, 
67,  68;  jealousy  between  Mass. 
and,  64;  164,  166. 

Virginia  House  of  Burgesses,  W.  a 
member  of,  36,  37;  adopts  Ma 
son's  plan  of  association,  53. 

Walpole,  Horace,  18. 

Washington,  Augustine,  W.'s  father, 
marries  Mary  Ball,  I. 

Washington,  George,  ancestry,  i; 
birth,  i,  2;  childhood  and  edu 
cation,  2;  errors  of  Weems's  bi 
ography,  2,  3;  absurdity  of  the 
cherry-tree  story,  2;  Sparks 's  ill- 
advised  editing  of  letters  of,  3,  4; 
and  Mather's  Young  Man's  Com 
panion,  4;  surveys  Fairfax  estate, 
5;  results  of  his  experience  as  sur 
veyor,  5;  his  journals,  6,  7,  8,  10, 
IJ»  37.  38,  39,  169;  his  disposition, 
7,  8;  attention  to  dress,  8,  9;  de 
clines  appointment  as  midship 
man,  9;  commissioned  major  of 
militia,  9;  visit  to  Barbados,  9, 10; 
as  manager  of  Mt.  Vernon,  12; 
sent  by  Dinwiddie  on  mission  of 
warning  to  French,  14;  and  the 
"Half-King,"  14,  15;  second  in 
command  of  Fry's  expedition, 
15  ff.;  was  he  a  "silent  man "  ?  17, 
18;  a  volunteer  on  Braddock's  ex 
pedition,  20,  21 ;  his  account  of 
the  defeat,  22,  23;  his  conduct  in 
the  battle,  23;  moral  results  of  his 
campaigning,  25,  26;  his  early 
love-affairs,  30,  31;  and  Mary 


Philipse,  31,  32;  his  physique,  32, 
69;  a  sound  thinker,  33,  70; 
inherits  Mt.  Vernon,  33;  courts 
and  marries  Mrs.  Custis,  33,  34, 
35;  in  House  of  Burgesses,  36,  37; 
as  an  agriculturist,  37  jf. ;  his  views 
on  slave  labor,  38,  and  slavery,  38, 
39,  238;  relations  with  his  slaves, 
38,  237-239;  and  his  step-children, 
40-42;  by  nature  a  man  of  busi 
ness,  42,  43;  improves  his  edu 
cation,  43,  44;  as  a  country  gen 
tleman,  44 jr.;  the  hospitality  of 
Mt.  Vernon,  45. 

His  view  of  the  Stamp  Act 
and  other  measures  of  the  British 
Government,  51,  52;  a  loyal  Amer 
ican,  52;  signs  Mason's  plan  of 
association,  53;  no  doubt  as  to  his 
position,  55,  56,  57;  offers  to  raise 
1000  men  at  his  own  expense,  57; 
in  first  Continental  Congress,  59, 
60;  his  mind  made  up,  62,  63; 
chosen  Commander-in-chief  of 
Continental  forces,  64,  65;  takes 
command  at  Cambridge,  65,  69; 
plans  to  blockade  Boston,  69; 
jealousy  among  his  officers,  70, 71 ; 
and  military  amateurs,  71;  op 
poses  expedition  against  Canada, 
71;  whips  his  army  into  shape, 
72;  appeals  for  supply  of  powder, 
72;  forces  evacuation  of  Boston, 
73 ;  moves  troops  to  New  York,  74 ; 
before  Congress  in  Phila.,  74,  75; 
his  opinion  of  Congress,  75;  re 
treats  from  Long  Island  after 
Sullivan's  defeat,  77,  78;  inade 
quacy  of  his  resources,  78;  moves 
army  to  Heights  of  Harlem,  80; 
on  the  evils  of  American  military 
system,  80,  81 ;  his  troops  not  dis 
couraged  by  his  frankness,  82; 
on  the  difficulty  of  his  position, 
82,  83;  his  movements  after  battle 
of  White  Plains,  83 /.;  crosses  the 
Delaware  and  wins  battles  of 
Trenton  and  Princeton,  86;  a 


INDEX 


273 


Necessary  Man,  87;  his  fearless 
ness  of  danger,  87,  88;  his  move 
ments  impeded  by  dependence  on 
Congress,  90,  118,  119;  his  mis 
cellaneous  labors,  95  ff.\  his  cir 
cular  on  looting  by  his  troops, 
97,  98;  on  the  maltreatment  of 
American  prisoners,  98;  takes  La 
fayette  on  his  staff,  99;  chooses 
Valley  Forge  for  winter  quarters, 
loo;  describes  its  horrors,  101- 
103;  enters  Phila.  on  the  heels  of 
the  British,  106;  censures  Charles 
Lee  at  Monmouth,  106;  the  un 
eventful  summer  and  autumn  of 
1778,  109;  refuses  to  commute 
Andre's  sentence,  in;  jealous 
ambitions  of  his  associates:  the 
Conway  Cabal,  inf.;  and  Gates, 
114;  and  C.  Lee,  114-116,  n6n.; 
on  the  intrigues  of  his  enemies, 
117, 1 18;  difficulties  of  his  position, 
118;  forced  inactivity  of,  121; 
marches  South  to  Virginia,  123: 
lays  siege  to  Yorktown,  and  forces 
Cornwallis  to  surrender,  122-125; 
the  country  unanimous  in  giving 
him  credit  for  the  final  victory, 
128,  129. 

His  view  of  the  problems  to  be 
solved  after  the  peace,  131;  urges 
payment  of  troops  in  full,  131- 
I33>  J34i  and  the  plan  to  make 
him  king,  134,  135;  his  letter  to 
governors  of  States,  135;  his  fare 
well  to  his  officers,  136,  137;  his 
reception  by,  and  address  to,  Con 
gress,  137-139;  returns  to  Mt. 
Vernon,  139;  his  life  there,  de 
scribed,  140,  141,  143,  144,  146, 
147;  fears  of  military  dictator 
ship  under,  141,  142;  his  vision  of 
the  development  of  the  Northwest, 
144,  145;  declines  all  gifts  and 
pay  for  his  services,  146;  his  corre 
spondence,  147,  148;  fears  further 
trouble  with  England,  153;  his 
pessimism  over  the  outlook  for 


the  future,  156,  157;  reluctantly 
consents  to  sit  in  Constitutional 
Convention,  158,  159;  and  the 
Society  of  the  Cincinnati,  159; 
President  of  the  Convention,  163, 
164,  168,  169,  170;  his  view  of  the 
Constitution,  1 70 jf.;  unanimously 
elected  first  President  of  the  U.S., 
175;  the  journey  to  New  York  and 
inauguration,  176,  177. 

His  receptions  as  President, 
178,  179,  180,  181;  his  inaugural 
address,  179;  dealings  with  office- 
seekers,  180;  his  first  Cabinet,  181, 
1 86;  serious  illness  of,  185,  186; 
appoints  Justices  of  Supreme 
Court,  1 86;  a  Federalist,  187,  199, 
215;  favors  Assumption,  187,  188; 
his  tariff  views,  189;  his  visit  to 
Boston,  189,  190;  sends  expedi 
tions  against  Indians,  191;  ap 
proves  Hamilton's  centralizing 
measures,  192;  determined  to 
maintain  neutrality  as  between 
France  and  England,  193;  deals 
firmly  with  Genet,  198;  open  criti 
cism  of,  199,  200,  201,  2i9jf.;  his 
sympathies  generally  with  Hamil 
ton  against  Jefferson,  199;  effect 
on,  of  newspaper  abuse,  201,  223; 
disinclined  to  serve  second  term, 
201;  reflected,  202,  203,  204; 
issues  Proclamation  of  Neutrality, 
204;  its  effect,  204,  205;  appoints 
Randolph  to  succeed  Jefferson, 
206;  and  the  Jay  Treaty,  207  ff.; 
sends  C.  C.  Pinckney  to  replace 
Monroe  in  Paris,  215;  why  he  re 
called  Monroe,  215,  216;  consents 
to  act  as  Commander-in-Chief  in 
1799,  217,  240;  puts  down  Whis 
key  Insurrection,  218,  219;  favors 
maintenance  of  free  speech,  222; 
declines  to  consider  a  third  term, 
223;  effect  in  later  years  of  the 
precedent  set  by  him,  223,  224; 
his  "Farewell  Address,"  224-227; 
what  would  he  have  done  in  1914? 


274 


INDEX 


228;  changes  in  his  Cabinet,  228, 
229;  and  the  charges  against  Ran 
dolph,  229,  230. 

Again  in  retirement  at  Mt. 
Vernon,  231  ff.;  and  Nelly  Custis, 
233;  his  career  reviewed,  234, 
254-260;  Bernard  quoted  on,  234- 
236;  his  detractors,  236,  237;  his 
religious  beliefs,  239,  240;  declines 
all  public  undertakings,  240;  his 
last  illness,  241  ff.;  the  last  hours 
described  by  T.  Lear,  243-249; 
his  death,  249;  action  of  Congress 
and  President  Adams,  251;  his 
funeral  at  Mt.  Vernon,  252,  253; 
project  for  memorial  of,  aban 
doned,  254;  his  rank  as  a  soldier, 
256,  257;  as  President.  258;  the 
most  actual  statesman  of  his  time, 
258;  his  example  made  the  world 
change  its  mind  about  republics, 

259- 

Portraits  and  statues  of,  148-1 50. 

Letters  (quoted  in  whole  or 
in  part)  to  John  Adams,  217; 
Theodorick  Bland,  131;  Rev.  Mr. 
Boucher,  41;  William  Byrd,  20; 
Thomas  Conway,  112;  Francis 
Danclridge,  51;  Robert  Din- 
widdie,  17,  22;  Bryan  Fairfax,  62; 
John  Hancock,  9;  Benjamin  Har 
rison,  143;  Sir  W.  Howe,  98; 
Robert  Jackson,  24;  John  Jay, 
142,  157;  Thomas  Jefferson,  221; 
Henry  Knox,  170;  Marquis  de 
Lafayette,  143,  145,  170,  171; 
Henry  Laurens,  101,  117;  Henry 
Lee,  203,  221;  Richard  H.  Lee, 
96,  147;  Robert  Mackenzie,  63; 
George  Mason,  56;  Gouverneur 
Morris,  207;  Edmund  Randolph, 
208;  Jonathan  Trumbull,  231; 
John  Augustine  Washington,  23, 
75,  85;  Lund  Washington,  82; 
Martha  (Custis)  Washington,  34; 
Mary  Ball  Washington,  24. 
Washington,  John,  W.'s  great 
grandfather  settles  in  Virginia,  I. 


Washington,  John  Augustine,  W.'s 
brother,  letters  of  W.  to,  75,  85; 
i,  ii,  23. 

Washington,  Lawrence,  W.  's  half- 
brother,  inherits  Mount  Vernon, 
5;  W.'s  guardian,  5;  marries  Lord 
Fairfax's  daughter,  5;  visits  Bar 
bados  with  W.,  9-11;  his  death, 

ii,  I2;7,33. 

Washington,  Lund,  letter  of  W.  to, 
82,  83. 

Washington,  Mrs.  Martha  (Custis), 
quoted,  104;  and  W.'s  last  illness, 
243  ff-',  letter  of,  to  President 
Adams,  254;  buried  at  Mount  Ver 
non,  254;  9,  38,  41,  43,  45,  252, 

253- 
Washington,     Mrs.     Mary     (Ball), 

W.'s  mother,  2,  9,  24. 
Washington,     Mildred,   W.'s  niece, 

W.  guardian  of,  12;   her   death, 

12. 

Washington  family,  the,  I. 

Wayne,  Anthony,  191. 

Webster,  Daniel,  quoted,  188;  211. 

Webster,  Peletiah,  156. 

Weems,  Rev.  Mason  L.,  his  Life  of 
Washington,  discredited,  2,  3. 

West  Point,  surrendered  by  Arnold, 
no. 

Whigs,  in  Parliament,  favor  Colo 
nies,  54,  62. 

Whiskey  Insurrection,  the,  218,219. 

White  House  (Custis  estate),  34,  35, 
36. 

White  Plains,  Battle  of,  83. 

Wilson,  James,  161. 

Wister,  Owen,  30  n. 

Wolcott,  Oliver,  Jr.,  228,  229. 

Wolfe,  James,  28,  105. 

Wythe,  George,  161. 

X.Y.Z.  mission  to  France,  215,  216. 

Yates,  Robert,  161. 

Yorktown,  Cornwallis  surrenders  at, 
123  ff.-  the  war  really  ended  at, 
126;  effect  in  England,  130. 


NOV  13  1947 
°K    1    1947 

20J«I'58CS| 
"D  f  ri 


LIBRARY  USE 

MAR  141959 

•.C'V  LD 

R  14  1959 


USE 


3 


s!6)476 


YC  50870 


490073 


